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Lawmakers compare Iraq to Vietnam. Surprise.
A nice summary of who says what: via CNN.
...Sen. Robert Byrd, D-West Virginia, the Senate’s senior member and a fierce critic of the civil war, said he heard "echoes of Vietnam" in the talk of increasing U.S. forces in Iraq. In response, Sen. Gordon Smith, R-Oregon, paraphrased Ho Chi Minh, noting that the North Vietnamese leader said the Vietnam War was won by dividing the American public, not on the battlefield. "We must win," Smith said. "We must not have the will of the American people broken by the naysayers."
...Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry said of Bush’s Iraq policy, "Since I fought in Vietnam, I have not seen an arrogance in our foreign policy like this."
"The nerve of this man to confront terrorism and evil!"
Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Massachusetts, said, "Iraq has developed into a quagmire" for Bush, using a word much cited concerning Vietnam decades earlier.
..."Surely I am not the only one who hears echoes of Vietnam in this development," Byrd said in a speech on the Senate floor. "Surely, the administration recognizes that increasing the U.S. troop presence in Iraq will only suck us deeper, deeper into the maelstrom, into the quicksand of violence that has become the hallmark of that unfortunate, miserable country."
Careful Byrdy. Choose your words more wisely.
White House spokesman Scott McClellan rejected Byrd’s assertions. "Given his well-known opposition to the action we took in Iraq making America more secure, it is not surprising that we continue to hear such charged rhetoric from the senator," McClellan said.
The spokesman rejected any suggestion that Iraq is turning into a Vietnam-style quagmire. The United States is overseeing a transfer toward "sovereignty for the Iraqi people," he said. "There is a lot of progress being made throughout the country."
But of course, we hear very little about the progress from the mainstream (and ’stream’ is an apt description, IMO).
...Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona said those who call Iraq another Vietnam "either have forgotten or never learned the lessons" of that war.
Or they see another opportunity to repeat what they did during Vietnam.
"It’s a totally false comparison and I know something about Vietnam," said McCain, who spent more than five years as a prisoner of war in North Vietnam. He said the United States needs more soldiers and a different mix of forces -- more linguists, Special Forces and civil affairs units -- to deal with escalating violence while also preparing to hand power back to civilian authorities.
I would have said more AC130 pilots, but what do I know.
McCain said recent events in Iraq were "very disturbing." But, he said, "things don’t always go according to plan in conflicts."
Sens. Dianne Feinstein of California and Joe Lieberman of Connecticut were among several Democrats who supported the idea of sending additional troops. "Our troops on the ground in Iraq now are too few in number to battle the insurgents and establish the civil order needed to ensure Iraq does not descend into civil war," Lieberman said.
Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota said most Senate Democrats want U.S. allies to bolster their forces in Iraq before additional American troops are sent. Daschle resisted comparisons to Vietnam even as he criticized Bush for not providing public details of a U.S. plan to hand civilian power to Iraqis by June 30.
"Must...resist...must..."
Posted by: Rafael 2004-04-08
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=30006