Ford Forgets the Lessons of Vietnam
Ford Forgets the Lessons of Vietnam
Today is the 31st anniversary of former President Gerald Ford’s announcement that he would end U.S. involvement in the Vietnam conflict. Speaking to a group assembled at Tulane University, Ford said:
Today, America can regain the sense of pride that existed before Vietnam. But it cannot be achieved by refighting a war that is finished as far as America is concerned. … Some tend to feel that if we do not succeed in everything everywhere, then we have succeeded in nothing anywhere. I reject categorically such polarized thinking. We can and we should help others to help themselves. But the fate of responsible men and women everywhere, in the final decision, rests in their own hands, not in ours. [Ford speech, 4/23/75]
On Friday, Ford issued a statement praising Rumsfeld and Bush for staying the course in Iraq:
When America’s security remains under threat and terrorists plot to attack us at home, our country is fortunate that we have a Secretary and a Commander-in-chief in President Bush with the character and steadiness to hold firm to the right course. [Ford statement, 4/21/06]
Vietnam was a conflict that could not be resolved by military force. Rep. John Murtha makes the case that the same is true for Iraq: “Our military has accomplished its mission in Iraq…and it is time to bring our troops home.” The administration now claims to have 242,000 trained Iraqi forces, and yet there has been no significant drawdown of U.S. troops.
Instead of defending Rusmfeld, Ford could best serve Bush by reminding him of the lessons of Vietnam.
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Did he trip over something on his way up to the podium? If not, that wasn’t Ford.
April 23rd, 2006 at 12:13 pmjust as in Vietnam, it’s going to take the American public to make its voice heard before the government’s policy changes
April 23rd, 2006 at 12:13 pmToo bad that the same people who voted him out of office aren’t the exact same people who will be voting in 2008.
April 23rd, 2006 at 12:34 pmFord is like, what, 103 years old? And he still feels the need to carry water for people like Rumsfeld??
April 23rd, 2006 at 12:40 pmI think Ford is a good man and that he was a pretty good President. (He appointed the best Supreme Court justice of our lifetimes, Justice Stevens.) But like many “moderate” Republicans, he’s put party and personal loyalty above good sense and morality. Ford is a Republican and Rumsfeld is a friend and Ford appointee, and that’s reason enough for him to defend him even if the defence makes no sense whatsoever. Ford is in the same category as Colin Powell: a sensible Republican who put good sense aside for the sake of his party.
April 23rd, 2006 at 12:44 pmto quote another Vietnam item well worth remembering and is equally applicable today “We’re waist deep in the big muddy, and the big fool says to push on”- Pete Seeger.
April 23rd, 2006 at 12:55 pmFormer President Ford is now senile, so he does not know what Rumsfeld is doing presently! Also remember that Rummy was in Ford’s cabinet in his brief presidency, so they are old pals!
April 23rd, 2006 at 12:59 pmWhen the time comes is Ford going to try to pardon Bush and Rumsfeld too?
April 23rd, 2006 at 1:02 pmI was with you up until this last part:Ford is in the same category as Colin Powell: a sensible Republican who put good sense aside for the sake of his party.
Comment by M.A. — April 23, 2006 @ 12:44 pm
Colin Powell is a party hack that will do anything (Iran-Contra) to keep republicans in power (including himself). I fail to see how this makes him “sensible.” He KNEW the weapons of mass destruction claim was debateable at best, and yet he put party over country and made the claims to the UN anyway. He forfeited any claim to being sensible when he kept his mouth shut about Bush’s true intentions in Iraq.
April 23rd, 2006 at 1:02 pmI don’t have a lot of criticism for Gerald Ford, but the man is 93 years old and has suffered at least one stroke. Should we give a lot of credence to his words and opinions? Does anyone? I am inclined to think that this is simply the RNC looking for someone with name recognition to say something positive about Bush&Co, and Ford complied.
April 23rd, 2006 at 1:16 pm“Instead of defending Rusmfeld, Ford could best serve Bush by reminding him of the lessons of Vietnam”.
More like ‘best serve’ the country. To hell with Bush.
April 23rd, 2006 at 1:29 pmWhen the administration speaks of terrorists, do they include white supremacy groups and those that bombed the building in Oklahoma…
Ho hum. I’m with #10 on this one.
April 23rd, 2006 at 1:38 pmSomebody slipped the Kool Ade into his Ensure.
April 23rd, 2006 at 1:53 pmFord was never a particularly bright informed president > he was always clumsy and tripped on things! He fell down the stairs of Air-Force-One jet a few times too! Gerald was always a petty stooge for the Republican party > he pardoned Nixon and really would have liked to continue the Vietnam war, but Nixon ended it before he resigned! Ford was cut to pieces by Jimmy Carter in 1976, so he was a very weak campaigner! He is responsible for coddling Rumsfeld and giving that evil fool a job in his cabinet! Even old ugly Cheney is a pal of dim-witted Ford!
April 23rd, 2006 at 1:57 pmPoor Jay,Ford at 93 is brighter than you at least by the terms of the “clever” comment you made. Criticism is one thing,snide remarks about an ex-President,however you may feel about him aren’t warranted. Have you achieved anything resembling what he did? Thought not.
April 23rd, 2006 at 2:11 pmCriticism is one thing,snide remarks about an ex-President,however you may feel about him aren’t warranted.
ok – right – pass that one along to the blame clinton and carter crowd…
April 23rd, 2006 at 2:19 pmshort memory?
A war (or an invasion and occupation in the case of Iraq) without an objective, is just a bunch of shooting and bombing and killing, I guess.
I mean, professional soldiers (even gang members) don’t fight senselessly, without an objective; there must be some end they aim at, some reason for fighting (for the war or invasion).
Now, the professional soldier needs no more reason other than being ordered to do so (the poem states the truth: theirs is not to question why…), but a nation that goes to war has a different reason than a soldier (his being a lawful order); no nation goes to war because it’s ordered to do so (the citizens can question why).
The nation that goes to war must have an objective; otherwise it’s just a bunch shooting and bombing and killing, I guess.
Now before I ask what was the objective of the Vietnam war (or what is the objective of the invasion and occupation of Iraq), I’ll first say that there are sensible objectives to war (and invasions); truly there are; and the first to cite would be:
DEFENSE (or otherwise Common Defense, or National Security: it’s the thing you do when you’re attacked or even threatened with attack).
The best of all reasons, or objectives, for war: DEFENSE.
Another reason or objective to cite:
JUSTICE (as an answer for something done, a crime or murder or attack; as a punishment to the one who had done it, and as a deterrent to their doing that thing again, and as an example to all others who might do the same: JUSTICE)
Now, DEFENSE as an objective for war or invasion, when it’s not for something happening right now (an attack), is for something in the future, that may happen (such as when the U.S. declared war on Germany, in response to the threat of the Nazi war machine’s aggression in Europe); JUSTCE on the other hand is always for something done in the past (such as Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor, which likewise resulted in a U.S. declaration of war).
And other than these two reasons for war and invasion, namely DEFENSE of the nation and JUSTICE for some attack or other thing done, I can only think of the professional soldiers reason: the lawful order.
Now rather than ask what was the objective of the Vietnam war (or what is the objective of the invasion and occupation of Iraq), and foregoing all the points of Duty, Honor, and Country that make for the professional soldier’s objectives (and obligation), I’d ask a citizen’s question:
“Was the reason for the Vietnam war anything to do with the DEFENSE of the United States’ national security, or anything to do with JUSTICE for anything done to the United States?”
I can think of no such reasons, or objectives, for the Vietnam war; perhaps you can, but to me, it seemed a bunch of shooting and bombing and killing; to the professional soldier it was the obeyance of lawful orders, but the citizens saw otherwise, and took to the streets in large numbers to protest.
Iraq seems also nothing to do with DEFENSE of U.S. national security or JUSTICE for anything done to the U.S.; it likewise involves the lawful orders and obeyance of professional soldiers, but it seems absent the citizen’s protest.
Or none that fills the streets anyway, although the internet-wire is quite hot on the matter.
As a matter of fact, I can think of no war or invasion undertaken by the United States, that involves the objectives or reasons of DEFENSE of the nation or of JUSTICE for anything done to the nation, since the wars against Germany and Japan.
It seems a nation’s wars and invasions are doomed to failure, unless they be for DEFENSE or JUSTICE; in which cases the American People have never failed to achieve victory.
Both the Vietnam war, and the invasion and occupation of Iraq, seemed (and seem) devoid of any objective of DEFENSE or JUSTICE.
They both seem just a bunch of shooting and bombing and killing, for the glory and the profit of all those who promote such stuff.
April 23rd, 2006 at 2:56 pmTJM,
Ford was a bumbling stooge who never acheived anything his whole life but the pardon of Nixon. Nothing to be proud of. How did he get there? Spiro Agnew resigned in disgrace right before Nixon. While it’s true that it’s hard to know who is the greater bumbling stooge, Ford or Chimpy, I’m sure we all wish we had Ford back, in hindsight.
April 23rd, 2006 at 2:58 pmYeah, I can’t get too excited about this. Who knows the circumstances under what it was dictated to him to sign and release.
He’s no hero of the right. If they decided this is good for pro-war propaganda purposes, it’ll be just one more example of how low they’ve sunk.
April 23rd, 2006 at 2:59 pmLets not forget Ford didn’t think Poland was “occupied” as in the warsaw pact, looks like he hasn’t learned much since………
April 23rd, 2006 at 3:02 pmGerald Ford wasn’t even relevant when he was POTUS…
…what makes him so now?
April 23rd, 2006 at 3:19 pmCriticism is one thing,snide remarks about an ex-President,however you may feel about him aren’t warranted. Have you achieved anything resembling what he did? Thought not.
Comment by TJM #15
TJM,
Sieg heil! You al Cracker, slave-to-the-potentates!
Gerald Ford was a good old boy who genuflected his way to the top…
…by the same method most right wing inbred scumbags do…
…fellating his fellow TRAITORS!
Right ON Jay!!!!
April 23rd, 2006 at 3:27 pmYou mentioned that you think this isn’t a job for our military. Well, who’s job is it? I’m not disagreeing with you. Simply unsure of what steps should be taken to fix the problem?
April 23rd, 2006 at 3:34 pm“Instead of defending Rusmfeld, Ford could best serve Bush by reminding him of the lessons of Vietnam. ”
Indeed. Lesson number 1: Imprision high profile traitors like Fonda and snakes like John Kerry. Purge the government, universities and media of communists and other assorted traitorous subversives. Lesson number 2: Don’t go to war if you don’t intend to to obtain total victory over the enemy and are willing to use the means availbable to achieve it. Vietnam was lost not because it was a victory unobtainable by military means quite the contrary. It was lost because traitors in our government in our media and in the streets working for the Soviets and Red Chinese caused Americans to give up.
April 23rd, 2006 at 4:15 pmSieg heil! You al Cracker, slave-to-the-potentates!
Gerald Ford was a good old boy who genuflected his way to the top…
…by the same method most right wing inbred scumbags do…
…fellating his fellow TRAITORS!
Right ON Jay!!!!
Comment by Spade in a Bow Tie
Ford was an idiot but at least he didn’t turn out to be the cowardly traitor Jimah Peanut Carter did….he’s your kind of man.
April 23rd, 2006 at 4:23 pmHe pardoned Nixon,that tells you what kind of man he was. Well he won’t get the chance to pardon bush.
April 23rd, 2006 at 4:35 pmFire your troll instructer you repeating machines….yawnnnnnnnnn.
Ford is a good man – PERIOD. He understands that America cannot cut and run and that opposition to Rummy is partisan. He also understands the hatred liberals have toward America. He witnessed it first hand during the Vietnam war. A bunch of selfish hypocrites who would kill women and children if it meant scoring partisan points.
Ashame the left has gotten us to a point where we are forced to question your patriotism becasue you cheer for death and destruction in Iraq.
April 23rd, 2006 at 4:44 pm#23 – PetLover,
Iraq was never a winnable conflict militarily. The administration failed to take virtually ALL of the recorded history of Iraq and her peoples to heart before undertaking this foolish and horribly costly endeavor. What is worse is that our continued military presence there is only exacerbating things. What steps should be taken to fix it? First, I don’t know that we can fix it this late in the game (it’s possible but is going to take a great deal of conciliation on the part of the various Iraqi sects). I think, however, that our government needs to adopt an amalgam of Rep. Jack Murtha’s and Gen. Wesley Clark’s ideas for how to proceed (many of their ideas are the same).
1. Strategic redeployment of ALL of our troops out of Iraq. (with a small contingent forward positioned in the region. Perhaps in Qatar or Kuwait)
2. A guarantee to the rest of the world that we have no designs on a permanent military presence in Iraq including relinquishing control of the bases we have built there to the Iraqis.
3. We need to work with our allies in Europe to allow for the reconstruction of Iraq to really be undertaken.
4. We need to enforce a summit of ALL the arab-league nations (including Iran) and work out a diplomatic solution to the problems we are encountering in Iraq.
5. We need to get strict with the new government in Iraq. They need to know unequivocally that they are not going to have our troops to lean on much longer so they must work out their differences and come to an agreement that is amenable to all.
Sadly, our current government will probably do NONE of these things. In order to backtrack that far, they would have to admit that they made greivious errors in the decisions leading up to and the execution (or lack thereof) of the war. Let’s face it, mea culpas are not the administration’s strong suit.
April 23rd, 2006 at 4:55 pm#15 TJM
April 23rd, 2006 at 5:06 pm“Criticism is one thing,snide remarks about an ex-President,however you may feel about him aren’t warranted. ”
You make me laugh with your stupid hypocrisy. You, friend of all who blame Clinton for everything bad although he has been out of office for 6 years, have lost all credibility, if you ever had any.
It’s time for you to go home and play quietly – you need a time out – time to think about what you say, time to see what is before your eyes, time to acknowledge the crooks and liars in the White House today.
Faiz asserts: “Vietnam was a conflict that could not be resolved by military force.”
*****VietNam was a war which COULD have been won – if Ramsey Clark and the rest of the LBJ – Nixon administrations RESOLVED to WIN. Had the military been able to do what the military does best – break things and kill people, the Viet Nam War could have been placed in the “win” column. Had General Grant been constrained as we restricted our military experts in VietNam, who knows if we would have a slave uprising to contend with instead of illegal aliens. Or in the case of General Patton, all the non-Jewish Anglos left alive could be “sprechen zie Duetsch”.
Progs, the lesson to be learned from the Viet Nam “conflict” – fight to WIN!!
April 23rd, 2006 at 5:39 pmFord was the president that ordered the military to bug out of Vietnam.
If you still dont know that we lost and gave up in that country, you should have been in Saigon on that day when all the bugging out was going on.
Kissingers PEACE WITH HONOR. Bullshit, we bugged folks, we gave up, conceded, turned victory into smashing defeat, lost our nerve and people will blame the dems, when it was the pukes who gave it all away. Rummy was part of that too, please recall that.
April 23rd, 2006 at 6:33 pmFord was an idiot but at least he didn’t turn out to be the cowardly traitor Jimah Peanut Carter did….he’s your kind of man.
Comment by I-RIGhT-I — April 23, 2006 @ 4:23 pm
Cowardly traitor? You must mean Reagan! He “served” aboard the USS Hollywood during WW2, and he sold weapons to terrorists as president – which more than qualifies him by your standards.
April 23rd, 2006 at 6:33 pm“Progs, the lesson to be learned from the Viet Nam “conflict†– fight to WIN!!
Comment by mighty aphrodite — April 23, 2006 @ 5:39 pm”
Right,like we are going to take advice from a Bush whore who supports the worst President in US history.Really great advice you are giving loser.
April 23rd, 2006 at 6:42 pmGo back to blowjobs bitch.
David – why are you still trying to defend Clinton? Had he been paying attention, he may have been able to stop 9/11. You have blood on your hands, dickhead.
April 23rd, 2006 at 6:45 pmProgs, the lesson to be learned from the Viet Nam “conflict†– fight to WIN!!
Comment by mighty aphrodite — April 23, 2006 @
Now there’s an elitist comment if I’ve ever seen one.
No, the “lesson” was that a conscripted army isn’t a happy army – or did you forget about “fragging?”
We weren’t winning hearts and minds over there or over here; how many funerals of the 50,000 dead did you attend? I attended funerals for three cousins and two neighbors during that time, and the anti-war sentiment at the time was palpable in the slice of small-town America where I grew up. You are a freaking ostrich, and it was your kind that kept the grinder going with talk of “Pull out? Doesn’t sound manly to me” (thanks George Carlin). The only thing about you that’s “mighty” is the odor of privileged hypocrisy – but then you’ve been living with that stench your whole life, so you probably aren’t even aware of it.
April 23rd, 2006 at 6:50 pmPity.
David , you vomitous, vulgar puke. Apparently, you have me confused with your flat backing sister – the poor dear….P.S. you seem so concerned with blow jobs, I thought YOU might be a right-wing religious conservative.
Robert MacNamara should be included in my list along with the modern version of Benedict Arnold, Ramsey Clarke.
April 23rd, 2006 at 6:52 pmHe witnessed it first hand during the Vietnam war. A bunch of selfish hypocrites who would kill women and children if it meant scoring partisan points.
Ashame the left has gotten us to a point where we are forced to question your patriotism becasue you cheer for death and destruction in Iraq.
Comment by God, Please Help Them… — April 23,
And please God, a little coherence from your followers to help get the message across…
April 23rd, 2006 at 6:57 pmDavid – why are you still trying to defend Clinton? Had he been paying attention, he may have been able to stop 9/11. You have blood on your hands, dickhead.
Comment by God, Please Help Them… — April 23,
And if that coward Bush senior had done HIS job right the first time, we wouldn’t be arguing about it, either.
April 23rd, 2006 at 6:59 pmI respect Gerald Ford. Unlike Eisenhower, who admitted later that the biggest “mistake” of his presidency was nominating Earl Warren, Ford continues to stand by his decision to nominate John Paul Stevens despite criticism from the right and his liberal voting record.
April 23rd, 2006 at 7:04 pmFord was the only Republican President in my lifetime whom I’d liked. I’d always admired him for his decision to sever our last ties with Vietnam (even though Congress got the ball rolling by cutting South Vietnam’s funding in 1973). He accepted the burdens of the presidency at a time when the economy was in danger of degenerating from a recession into a depression and assumed complete responsibility of a cynical, disillusioned country under the most unenviable of circumstances. It was like trashing a house and then selling the ruins to your brother. So, Ford always had my conditional respect.
But after these comments, it makes me realize that, as Jane Hamsher said recently, “There is no such thing as a moderate Republican.” A lot of the respect that I had for Ford, including him cutting inflation virtually in half in his brief administration, was eroded by these comments.
By the way, Crooks and Liars took the permalink down, but I have a new Assclowns of the Week up.
April 23rd, 2006 at 7:13 pmProgs, the lesson to be learned from the Viet Nam “conflict†– fight to WIN!!
Comment by mighty aphrodite — April 23, 2006 @ 5:39 pm
I don’t even remember the Vietnam War and am not able to talk about it like someone who remembers it. Mighty Medusa is far more than a ‘tad’ older than 34. I’m guess atleast 54.
CBS did an excellent piece on 60 Minutes about the Iraq-Niger Uranium deal that did not exist in reality. Bush’s poll numbers might hit the lower thirties after that one.
April 23rd, 2006 at 7:17 pm“*****VietNam was a war which COULD have been won – if Ramsey Clark and the rest of the LBJ – Nixon administrations RESOLVED to WIN. mighty moron”
Ah, yet another GLIB and retarded remark from our resident sociopath compuslive liar. If you were going to pick an official to blame for Vietnam, the attorney general is as RETARDED of a choice as you could possibly make. It’s like blaming John Ashcroft for Iraq.
You’ve made a LOT of stupid charges, but this one exceeds your ‘normal’ levels of psychotic paranoia. Bad pretend lawyer, Bad pretend mother and HORRIBLE pretend soldier. You’re a disgrace to america, and a traitor it’s values you psychotic FASCIST FREAK. Go get some thorozine, and put yourself in a padded room where you belong you stupid freak.
What a MORON you are.
April 23rd, 2006 at 7:19 pmunbelievable,
Mighty Moron also rants on about FDR as though (s)he were an adult. A lack of personal expertise (or any expertise for that matter) has never stopped mighty moron for interjecting his opinion on a topic.
And now we’re up to 5 kids (one of which she apparently murdered), 3 bar exams, practicing law in 2 states in addition 12 years of military service, 3 years of college, and law school all in 15 years.
This is what you call a serial compulsive liar…
April 23rd, 2006 at 7:22 pmI see the trolls are out in force today with their bongs smoking old sneakers.
April 23rd, 2006 at 7:39 pmWe are a nation of talking pussies,anyone who thinks this wont play into the next election is a moron. Someone needs 2 slam a truck into a Diebold warehouse and steal one of those corrupt machines right before election time. Sound irrational? Think of the alternative.
April 23rd, 2006 at 7:39 pm#35 – “Now there’s an elitist comment if I’ve ever seen one.” – Another “thoughtful” comment by the aptly named, barfly
******Look up the word “elitist”. (Obviously, its definition is baffling you.) There is nothing remotely elitist about fighting a war with intentional effort to WIN. (Does the prog “talking points” author/s throw out words like “elitist”, “extreme right-wing”, “corporate greed” etc. and instruct progressive minions to use them in blog postings?? I suggest you find out the definitions before using the Prog Words of the Day.
Barfly continues, “No, the “lesson†was that a conscripted army isn’t a happy army – or did you forget about “fragging?â€
******I suppose that is why the all-volunteer military is the military of the day. (In my compassionate conservatism, I am beginning to feel great embarrassment for you.)
I have attended several military funerals in the last 15 years. Only one was for a relative- but I grieved for them all.
Your assumptions about me and my life reflect envy and resentment. Your opinion of me is none of my business.
Happy Sunday….
April 23rd, 2006 at 7:49 pm“From start to finnish, American leaders remained catastrophically ignorant of Vietnmese history, culture, values, motives, and abilities. Misperceiving both it enemy and its ally and imprisoned in the myopic conviction that sheer military force could somehow overcome adverse political circumstances, Washington stumbled from one failure to the next in the continuing delusion that success was always just ahead” – Without Honor – Arnold R. Isaacs
April 23rd, 2006 at 7:54 pmThis is what you call a serial compulsive liar…
Comment by Ryan Neat — April 23, 2006 @ 7:22 pm
There you are. Well, yes, nothing he says even sounds plausible. You’ve pegged him so many times on his lies and psychopathic personality, and yet he continues to pad his resume with more and more nonsense. I’m going back to thinking he’s in his late seventies. He talks like my father who was from that WWII generation anyway.
My father who was a loyal Republican voted for Jimmy Carter because he couldn’t stand Ford. Pretty bad for a life-long Republican to vote for a liberal over his party’s candidate.
April 23rd, 2006 at 8:13 pm“******Look up the word “elitistâ€. (Obviously, its definition is baffling you.) There is nothing remotely elitist about fighting a war with intentional effort to WIN. Mighty Moron”
The dictionary says:
elitism: 1 : leadership or rule by an elite
So by definition if an elite group (say the americans) rule others purely because of belonging to that group – that is inherently elitism.
Mighty Moron, I know with all of the fake expertise you’ve worked to accumulate on law, history, politics, religion and economics you must be too busy to go purchase a dictionary – may I suggest you use one online before continuing to embarrass yourself with such outbursts of ignorance? Then again, it’s kind of ‘enchanting’ to see you look like a stupid fool day in and day out…
“I have attended several military funerals in the last 15 years. Only one was for a relative- but I grieved for them all. Mighty Liar”
You’ve already PROVEN you’re a sociopath, we all know this is an ABSOLUTE LIE. You don’t feel compassion or grief for anyone but yourself, you selfish psycho.
April 23rd, 2006 at 8:59 pm“Your assumptions about me and my life reflect envy and resentment. Your opinion of me is none of my business. Mighty Moron”
Huh? First of all you post FACTS (or LIES IN REALITY) about yourself daily in order to attempt to manipulate people – it’s what SOCIOPATHS like you do. If you didn’t care about the opinions of others, you would lie so ‘personally’ so often as you do. So this is just another lie, in a LONG LIST of lies…
You’re a SICK STUPID MAN.
April 23rd, 2006 at 9:01 pmM(entally) A(ssinine)…Vietnam was not a winnable war unless we wanted to use tactics that might have even made Hitlers blood curl, read the pentagon papers sometime and if you are capabile of comperhending the words you will see that the leadership understood this in 1968 when the study of 1950’s-1968 Vietnam was ordered by McNamara. Unless we were willing to Kill the majority of the indiginous people of that country..both North and South then the government that we were attempting to install would never have the legitimacy that the north had with most people on the ground….sort of a hearts and minds approach which we seemed doomed to repeat in Iraq at the present time……..
April 23rd, 2006 at 10:03 pmOver the Cliff – Thank you for your input. If you regard anything Robert McNamara did as imbedded with honesty, his pathetic, groveling memoir should make you want to loose you dinner. It is very difficult to win a war with one arm tied behind your back and a lying cowardly future Senator crying to the Congress about personal and systemic war crimes, real or imagined.
Thank you for not having any input during any other war or conflict. Your attitude of defeatism helps me to understand your affinity for progressive ideology. Unfortunately, the pessimism of progressives is so ingrained in the progressive/socialist movement that I doubt progs will re-capture the Congress – who wants to vote for a bunch of whiney hand-wringers???
Good night.
April 23rd, 2006 at 11:17 pmMighty McNamara did not do the report, and there is your failing you KNOW nothing but spew alot….
Thank you for not having any input during any other war or conflict.
Comment by mighty aphrodite — April 23, 2006 @ 11:17 pm
In case you fail to have read my other posts…I am a 100% disabled Gulf War vet……thank you for your ignorance it is refreshing to see how much you actually know…..
April 23rd, 2006 at 11:22 pmAnd telling the truth is not whining nor pessimism, but the first step in assesing the situation in order to formulate a plan of action that can work…something georgie boy knows as much as you seem to know about…..NOTHING
April 23rd, 2006 at 11:25 pmI understand Ryan but (s)he must be confronted, that was the germans real fault they never confronted the Nazis and allowed them to take over….plus with someone as limited as MA seems to be it is not hard.
April 24th, 2006 at 12:51 amIt is very difficult to win a war with one arm tied behind your back and a lying cowardly future Senator crying to the Congress about personal and systemic war crimes, real or imagined.
Mighty Ironic
I hope your “brother in the service” doesn’t read your words; I’m sure he knows how damaging proven torture isto our war effort. Why do you hate the troops? They are the ones who will suffer for your “torture is ok if we don’t know about it” attitude, coward, your “brother” included.
Yes, you are an elitist punk, who never served (irrespective of your dubious claims to the contrary) who thought they would be proved right about Iraq. And now that you see the idiot you’ve aligned yourself with, you’re trying to refight previous lost battles to distract from current failures – let me guess, you’re a southerner, right? Twenty-five years from now you’ll be furiously re-fighting the Iraq war from a retirement home, making the same tired, debunked claims, emiting phlegmy cackles every time you hit the “enter” key.
I suppose that is why the all-volunteer military is the military of the day. (In my compassionate conservatism, I am beginning to feel great embarrassment for you.)
By then, we’ll be back to conscripting your “kids”, because we’ll be getting ready for the NEXT republican war of choice. The “war on Mars.”
April 24th, 2006 at 1:05 amRyan as for whiney isn’t blaming the last President SIX years into a current administration about as whiney as one can get?
April 24th, 2006 at 1:09 amFunny thing about Jimmy Carter, he basically prestated Bush’s addicted to oil speech… and actually offered a way out when the worlds situation was not so dire….too bad Reagan (or Bush for that matter )wasn’t smart as Carter…..we wouldn’t be in the mess we are now if Jimmy Carter had been listened to, but that wasn’t Macho was it?
April 24th, 2006 at 1:26 amTouche’ Ryan, but Jimmy is smarter than either even pretended to be…(and more christian)
April 24th, 2006 at 2:05 amFord is a good man – PERIOD. He understands that America cannot cut and run and that opposition to Rummy is partisan. He also understands the hatred liberals have toward America. He witnessed it first hand during the Vietnam war. A bunch of selfish hypocrites who would kill women and children if it meant scoring partisan points.
Ashame the left has gotten us to a point where we are forced to question your patriotism becasue you cheer for death and destruction in Iraq.
Comment by God, Please Help Them..
to God, help your stupidity,
April 24th, 2006 at 2:45 am1. If you pay attention at all to the news, you might have heard some criticism of Rumsfeld from Republicans like Trent Lott, Chuck Hagel, John McCain, etc.
2. No, we don’t cheer for death and destruction in Iraq nor would we ever kill women and children to score a point; we are, in fact, hoping to put an end to all this.
3. And we don’t hate America; it is people like you who don’t believe in free speech that actually hate America. Undoubtedly, you are unfamiliar with Thomas Jefferson’s statement that “dissent is the highest form of patirotism.”
4. I agree that Ford is probably a decent person. I will refrain from commenting myself on his intelligence but just quote LBJ on Ford, “he spent too many years playing football without a helmet.”
Perhaps President Ford was defending Bush because, like GWB, Ford had also been ‘appointed’ President. Ford had never even ‘run for President’ before becoming one. And when he DID run, he lost, to Jimmy Carter. Which also put the brakes on Rumsfeld and Cheney, for awhile, anyway. Now, more than 30 years later, Rumsfeld and Cheney are still trying to manipulate a weak President, in the neverending desire for power and all that comes with it. Bush 41 owes most of his “success” in the political arena directly to the actions of Rumsfeld and Cheney. Head of the CIA, Vice President, AND President too!!! Pretty amazing!! The Bushes owe them ALOT, and that is no problem, it’s not like it’s THEIR money, or THEIR kids being sacrificed on their altar of the ‘Almighty Dollar’, (praise the US Mint, can I get a witness? AMEN!!) Nothing else matters, NOTHING ELSE EVER WILL!!! Poor Mr.Ford, once their puppet, always their puppet. If only Reagan were still alive… Can’t have everything…yet.
April 24th, 2006 at 6:38 amYa cant remeber that which you have never learned to begin with, the lessons of viet nam are lost on those who did not serve there including rummies dummies, sad to say isnt it? as a viet vet i can onlysadly say that iraq is a four letter word for viet nam and when i debated john gibson live on the radio he roundly shut me down using his microphone gain to argue that i was a cut and run-ist, cut and run? ya mean like pushin helicopters over the side of air craft carriers?
April 24th, 2006 at 8:18 amdumb shit republican hacks cant see past their dumb shit ego’s!
support the troops bring them home alive…
Ya cant remeber that which you have never learned to begin with, the lessons of viet nam are lost on those who did not serve there including rummies dummies, sad to say isnt it?
Comment by stewart
What’s sad is the communists beat your ass on the home front not on the battlefield and you learned nothing from the experience. Brain damage maybe? Agent orange? Heroin? SE Asian weed?
April 24th, 2006 at 8:50 am68 I-RIGHT-I
You know, you have a point. The communists really have taken over America, the reds after all, run Congress, the Senate and the Oval Office itself.
April 24th, 2006 at 10:37 amMethinks Ford has fallen on his head too much.
April 24th, 2006 at 1:02 pmTo #69 Iam-aWRONG-IDIOT,
April 24th, 2006 at 6:20 pmSo now you’re trashing an actual Vietnam vet from your comfy chair. Have you no shame at all, Mr. Chickenhawk?
To #69 Iam-aWRONG-IDIOT,
So now you’re trashing an actual Vietnam vet from your comfy chair. Have you no shame at all, Mr. Chickenhawk?
Comment by Lora
Hi Lora…one thing you need to know about Vietnam vets….some of them aren’t worth pissing on. Like John Kerry for example.
April 25th, 2006 at 1:38 pm#Then don’t piss on them until you chalk up some military experience yourself, Mr. Chickenhawk.
April 25th, 2006 at 6:43 pmI think he may be suffering from an acute case of dementia. He might have forgotten the very statements he so eloquently made a long time ago. Come on folks, give the old man a break, WILL ‘YA?!
April 27th, 2006 at 3:15 pmAmericans are such cowards and sissies. You retarded Americans will never win another war because you give up too easily. I love seeing Americans run home after they see that they can bleed from a gun shot. Americans are only good at killing one another. Look at your neighborhoods in America…keep on shooting each other. hahahahaha!
by the way…you stupid American are so dumb, that you rather kill your President JFK than kill Ho Chi Minh…..you retards are only good at killing each other….what a bunch of trolls!
November 22nd, 2006 at 5:48 pmdit me may thang my trang ngu nhu con bo
November 22nd, 2006 at 6:27 pmI think it is very good for any American Presidents to visit Vietnam because maybe they can learn that communism is good and that America should become a communist country too. America needs to wake up and learn from the Vietnamese government. Hopefully the next President of America, Hilliary Clinton, will try to turn America into a communist country. That would be great for America and the world. We need to have more communist countries, and America could be the next to join us.
November 22nd, 2006 at 6:30 pm