In a speech to a group of U.S. veterans on August 22, 2007, President George Bush likened the war in Iraq with the Vietnam War. Bush stated, "Whatever your position is on that debate, one unmistakable legacy of Vietnam is that the price of America's withdrawal was paid by millions of innocent citizens whose agonies would add to our vocabulary new terms, like 'boat people,' 'reeducation camps,' and 'killing fields.'"
Many people have attacked this comparison. Others agree that a comparison is possible but that Bush hasn't learned from the mistakes of the Vietnam War. What do you think? Are there similarities between the war in Iraq and the Vietnam War? What lessons should we have learned from the Vietnam War so that we don't repeat the same mistakes? (Post your thoughts by clicking "comments" below.)
Comments
The question diminishes the importance of President Bush’s speech. He did point out that quiting rather than winning in Vietnam had consequences. Far worse for Iraq, the consequences of quiting would include the enemy following us home. Bin Laden asserts that the US will fail by quiting. Such a course would be disasterous for the US and the West.
It was indiscrete, to say the least, for Bush to bring up the subject of the Vietnam conflict, a war which he personally so artfully dodged. Still, while I disagree with our President’s stated reasons for (mission) accomplishing the current quagmire in Iraq, I don’t feel that withdrawing our military anytime soon is a good idea at all.
While there may be similarities between Iraq and Vietnam (though are motives for going into both are radically different), the fact that he invoked it are rather surprising. The snippets of his speech that I read almost make it appears that he was blaming the American people for our “failure” in Vietnam and that he is now, if we pull out of Iraq, going to blame our pullout there on the very people that elected him and who he serves. Talk about in a state of denial!!
I agree with Carl Francis. I think our being there is stupid and incredibly wasteful, but at the same time we made the mess, so we need to clean it up.
Cheers!!
What an act of desperation! He got a cushy way of getting out of being drafted. Yes, there are similarities between Vietnam and Iraq. But there are also differences. Just like in Vietnam, in Iraq, the US is mired by bloody conflict. However, unlike Vietnam, in Iraq, the US caused the problem by invading Iraq without a long term plan.
Obviously, the Bush administration did not learn from Vietnam.
How dare that snake compare those two wars NOW when he had the opportunity to learn from Vietnam before he got the United States into another war of aggression. We have no president in this country at this point as far as I am concerned.
Had President Bush and his commanders secured the border in Iraq before the war the situation in that country might be a little more managable that it is today.
How can you compare a war in the desert to a war in a jungle? Our reasons for entering either war were completely different.
Bush is a butthead! But what do I know? I’m only 13!