FLASHBACK: Bush Rejected Iraq-Vietnam Analogy, Said It Sends The ‘Wrong Message To Our Troops’
FLASHBACK: Bush Rejected Iraq-Vietnam Analogy, Said It Sends The ‘Wrong Message To Our Troops’
Yesterday, President Bush said New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman “could be right” that the current spike of violence in Iraq is “jihadist equivalent” of the 1968 Tet Offensive in Vietnam. The event was “widely credited with eroding support for President Johnson” and turning the American public against that war.
President Bush has flatly rejected comparing Vietnam and Iraq as recently as June 2006. In 2004, Bush said such an analogy “sends the wrong message to our troops, and sends the wrong message to the enemy.” Watch it:
Transcript:
Q: Do you see, as some of your critics do, a parallel between what’s going on in Iraq now and Vietnam?
THE PRESIDENT: No. [6/14/06]
[Snip]
Q: Mr. President, April is turning into the deadliest month in Iraq since the fall of Baghdad, and some people are comparing Iraq to Vietnam and talking about a quagmire. Polls show that support for your policy is declining and that fewer than half Americans now support it. What does that say to you and how do you answer the Vietnam comparison?
THE PRESIDENT: I think the analogy is false. I also happen to think that analogy sends the wrong message to our troops, and sends the wrong message to the enemy. [4/13/04]
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Why does George Bush hate our troops?
October 19th, 2006 at 3:24 pmDang it, #1: you beat me to it.
October 19th, 2006 at 3:27 pmBuy the man some flip flops… there he goes again… flip-floppin’. Wish he would make up his mind, it either is or it isn’t.
October 19th, 2006 at 3:29 pmHe was AWOL form reserve service during Vietnam and he is AWOL now. (AWOL = Ass**le Warmoner Oil Industry Lacky)
October 19th, 2006 at 3:35 pmSo I guess now it’s the right message.
Except, considering the source, it must be wrong.
This is all so confusing. Is there no Republican who can lead me to the light? Who should I turn to? Who?
October 19th, 2006 at 3:37 pmWell, the only thing consistent about him is his inconsistency.
“You see, in my job you gotta keep repeating things over and over in order to kind of catapult the progaganda”.
October 19th, 2006 at 3:38 pmThe last two weeks have produced a dramatic shake-up in the Top 10 GOP Sound Bite list. The exploding Mark Foley scandal, the disintegration of Iraq and the new terrorist detainee legislation sent a bevy of Republican ditties racing up the charts. Meanwhile, some old conservative standards have fallen by the way side.
For the full list, see:
October 19th, 2006 at 3:39 pm“Top 10 GOP Sound Bites, FoleyGate Edition.”
#4 – pissed off – very funny :)
October 19th, 2006 at 3:39 pmPres Bush was against the Iraq-Vietnam analogy before he was for it.
October 19th, 2006 at 3:40 pmJust six months ago he was saying how is plan for victory was working and all upset that MSM wasn’t showing all that goodness.
October 19th, 2006 at 3:47 pmWhy can’t this moron stay the course on his slogans?
October 19th, 2006 at 3:55 pmHow many ways can you say “FLIP FLOPPER”??
October 19th, 2006 at 4:05 pmHe looks so put out in the photo/freeze frame displayed above. It’s like he’s thinking ,”I’m the king; why do i waste time dealing with these peasants?”
October 19th, 2006 at 4:08 pmAmerica’s Least Wanted
I bet some of our brave troops over in Iraq are listening to President Bush and thinking “the Commander in Chief is a real idiot”. Now, I wonder what kind of message that sends to our troops – that they have been sent into harm’s way by a bumbling idiot.
October 19th, 2006 at 4:14 pmHe was against comparing Iraq to Vietnam before he was for it.
October 19th, 2006 at 4:16 pmCaption contest-It sure was a lot more fun drinking, snorting, and running oil companies into chapter 7!
October 19th, 2006 at 4:27 pmIncurious George couldn’t see the similarities to Viet Nam until they were pointed out to him by Henry “Dr. Strangelove” Kissinger.
October 19th, 2006 at 4:32 pmLook at chimpy the dumbf*ck!
F*CK YOU BUSH!
October 19th, 2006 at 4:35 pmCaption:
October 19th, 2006 at 4:45 pmF*ck, what kind of shit can I make up next…
Jesus H. Christ, even Republicans must be getting sick of Bush’s broken-record “it hurts the troops” response to every form of criticism.
Guys, next time the missus asks you to mow the lawn, just say, “That would send the wrong message to the troops … and to the enemy.”
If she doesn’t buy it and tells you to get up off your lazy ass, just say, “So, you support the terrorists?”
Bushian loyalty is no virtue–it’s the loyalty of thieves
October 19th, 2006 at 4:52 pm“But didnt bush say…. OOOH!! FOOTBALL IS ON!”
October 19th, 2006 at 5:04 pmYo Blair!!
October 19th, 2006 at 5:18 pmBig Cynic
October 19th, 2006 at 5:43 pmIf I told the missus that, I’d have to have my track shoes on, she’s fast!
Bushie can’t keep track of his defenses.
October 19th, 2006 at 5:45 pmWell, don’t ypu think it “sends the wrong message to the troops” when you send them into Iraq based on a pack of lies?
Come on now! How much more brain dead can Emperor George get before we hold him accountable?
October 19th, 2006 at 6:12 pmI found a comment by Juan Cole, where he interprets Pres Bush’s comment in a different way. In his opinion, what Pres Bush mean was that the violence spike in Iraq is designed to influence the American public at a time of an election (just like he thinks the VietCong had in mind during the Tet offensive. That treasonous media!) and not that he thinks the conflict is unwinnable.
But Cole tells it much better than I could:
What is delicious is that the general American public does not hold the view of the Vietnam War popular among far-right politicians like Bush, and so no one but the true believers will catch his drift here. In fact, most Americans will assume that Bush has admitted that we are in an unwinnable quagmire in Iraq, just as in Vietnam. And the Iraq=Vietnam identification is likely to stick. Of all his misstatements and malapropisms over the years, any one of which would have robbed most people of credibility or made them a laughing-stock, it is ironic that this miscalculation, uttered coolly and with no stutter, may have been his biggest gaffe of all.
October 19th, 2006 at 6:15 pmBush: This is their Tet
Yeah, why not…it’s far better to lie to them. Like there’s actually plans to fully leave Iraq. Some soldiers will be left there to protect the oilindustry and will continue to be target practise for angry Iraqis.
October 19th, 2006 at 6:42 pmHaving limbs blown off, now THAT sends the right message to the troops.
October 19th, 2006 at 7:19 pmHey Troops! ~ You’re cannon fodder for our imperialistic hegemony efforts!
I am not advocating staying in Iraq any longer, but has the U.S. even considered the total, utter humiliation we will endure when we leave?
When the last of our army finally leaves Iraq the symbolism will be 20 times worse than the scene of last helicopter flying off the embassy roof in Saigon.
We haven’t even come close to preparing for that day. It is now certain to happen. Our record for major wars since 1950 will then be 1 win, 2 losses and 1 tie (Korea).
And we laugh at the French????!!! The French warned us about not going into Vietnam AND Iraq.
October 19th, 2006 at 8:31 pmwhat the hell would the awol coward know about vietnam?
October 19th, 2006 at 8:34 pmBush is slowly (very slowly) coming to realize just how ugly his mess is. It’s too bad the Supreme Court appointed a short busser to the most powerful position on the planet.
Let’s make a vow – no more idiots in the Oval Office.
October 19th, 2006 at 8:36 pm#30 i doubt whether the 650,000 dead iraq women and babies give a damn if america is humiliated.
October 19th, 2006 at 8:40 pmI believe the Republicans call that a flip flop.
But reality-based folks would call this an abomination.
October 19th, 2006 at 8:45 pmThe Shrub, Dubya, was drunk and on on drugs during Vietnam and there is no proof that he is not drinking and doing drugs during Iraq…what does he know about how it affects troops in the field and how would he know about war? Dubya is a drunken AWOL coward, always was and always will be.
October 19th, 2006 at 11:37 pmUS may have weeks, not months, to avert all-out civil war in Iraq
by John in DC – 10/19/2006 09:24:00 AM
SF Chronicle:
…in a sign of the growing sense of urgency, a member of a high-powered government advisory body that is developing options to prevent Iraq’s chaotic collapse warns that the United States could have just weeks, not months, to avoid an all-out civil war.
“There’s a sense among many people now that things in Iraq are slipping fast and there isn’t a lot of time to reverse them,” said Larry Diamond, one of a panel of experts advising the Iraq Study Group, which is preparing a range of policy alternatives for President Bush.
“The civil war is already well along. We have no way of knowing if it’s too late until we try a radically different course,” said Diamond, an expert on building democracies who is at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution and is a former adviser to the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq.
October 20th, 2006 at 12:36 amHere are some of my takes on Bush through the Press Democrat:
Tears Need Not Apply
October 19, 2006
The article “Deadly month for GIs†depicts perfectly the depressing death rate of our soldiers in Iraq. This month 70 U.S. soldiers were killed and climbing. Even more disrupting is the number of Iraq civilians killed in this Sunni/Shitte civil war; their death rate amounting over a hundred just this month alone. But Mr. “Stay the Course†President Bush can only add that the war is the equivalent of the Tet offensive. So what’s Bush’s conclusion: “It breaks my heart because behind every casualty is somebody with tears in their eyes.†As thing stands it appears that the above mush was scripted. By every account President Bush hadn’t alter his course for this war regardless of the mounting body count of our troops despites admitting that the Iraq war had nothing to do with 9/11. President Bush’s yapping that the Democrats are the party of cut and run is trying to get the general public to support “his†war. Only 60% of Americans question the Iraq war while in a saner nation the percentage would have been up to 90%. Solution? I haven’t the foggiest. I never learn to speak psychoese.
Signing Your Worries Away
October 18, 2006
The article “Bush OKs bill on terror suspects†is a most exemplary article about President Bush signing the Military Commission Act 2006, terminating habeas corpus for our own good. The president’s perception to insure the safety of Americans against terrorism by signing this bill is the crack of doom to America’s fundamental freedoms. In this the article is dead center. So as par of the course I’ll further add to the discussion stating that habeas corpus is the fundamental instrument for safeguarding an individual’s freedom against an arbitrary and lawless state action. Even more disrupting is President Bush interpreting the Geneva Conventions, claiming it’s vague. Strange, no other president had any problem understanding that torture is morally wrong. Now the issue of torture: Bush believes valuable information can be obtained by stringing up some disenfranchised victim to the ceiling. The majority of experts in interrogation agree conclusively that torture doesn’t work. Finally, President Bush continues to say the enemy “hates†us for our freedom. Maybe this is the president’s Master Plan: to destroy all our freedom so “they†won’t have a reason to hate us.
Missing in Action
October 15, 2006
The article “N. Korea leads new nuclear arms race†by Alissa J. Rubin is a very concise history of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Also, Ms. Rubin’s term “the global nuclear order†is very much to the point when referring Brazil, Argentina, South Africa, and Australia’s involvement in nuclear proliferation. Blame is placed here and there especially with the International Atomic Energy Agency’s failure as the WMDs watchdog. Extensive as this article is it failed to mention another aspect of this global fiasco: John Bolton. We all know that our UN Ambassador-designate Bolton botched his end in preparing a key nonproliferation conference which proves to be a serious setback for the U.S. in controling nuclear proliferation. In his National Defense University speech in 2004, President Bush called for toughing the NNPT. But earlier this year the U.S. was unprepared for the NNPT review. Why? John Bolton. At that time Bolton was missing in action when it came to implement Bush’s 2004 NNPT agenda. Bolton had stopped all diplomacy since, forcing the NSC to later pick up the slack. But the damage is done which also explains North Korea and Iran as well.
655,000 And Climbing
October 11, 2006
The article “Study says 655,000 Iraqis have died in war†provides the most sobering assessment for this war in Iraq: 655,000 dead Iraqis and climbing. President Bush quickly dismissed this estimate and for good reason as it conflicts with his 30,000. This is just another Bush deception that’s uncovered. Other damaging evidences for the Iraq war: the Downing Street Memo, testimonies from Rich Clarke and Paul O’Neal; Bob Woodward’s book about our troops in Iraq suffering 800 plus attacks a week and the burying of the recent NIE report that exposes the American occupation had spawn a new generation of Islamic radicalism. This latest setback of the immense body count further exposes the Bush administration’s destructive policies in Iraq that are dragging our nation into ruin. The right wing spin machine will be working overtime on this: the prestigious British Medical Journal Lancet will not be easily discarded as a left wing reactionary ploy, not since the body of this research was completed by the Johns Hopkins University’s Bloomberg School of Public Health. Credibility is no longer in Bush’s corner but at the feet of the American people.
Blow Up
October 10, 2006
The article “Nuclear test angers North Coast residents†by Derek J. Moore seem to open a forum for the North Coast residents to state their views of North Korea’s latest nuclear test. Instead Mr. Moore had only one resident expressing his indignation: “I’m not afraid. I’m angry,†said Mr. Rip Min. The rest of the article was relegated to nuclear analysis and analysts. I would have preferred more of the vox populi of the North Coast. Thus as a resident I’ll add my two cents: Like Mr. Min, I too am angry about North Korea’s nuclear testing. I’m angry that the Bush administration had abandoned the successful anti-nuclear diplomatic initiatives that the Clinton administration had put in place. Instead Bush tossed his hard-line rhetoric that North Korea is part of the “Axis of Evil.†North Korea panicked, fearing that it’ll go by the way of Iraq; invaded by the U.S. Quickly, North Korea broke off diplomatic relationship with the U.S. and resumed plutonium production. Now don’t get me wrong, I find the nuclear buildup situation unacceptable, especially because of the Bush administration’s haphazard diplomacy with North Korea over the past six years.
Shell Game
October 9, 2006
The article “Iraq panel likely to buck Bush war stance†splashes cold water on the Bush administration’s rosy projection for a victory in the Iraq war. James Baker presents what he believes is the only option left for the Bush administration: negotiate for global stability with Iran, Syria and North Korea. Baker believes the only opportunity for victory against terrorism in opening talks with these nations. What the article seem to omit is President Bush 2004 State of the Union, declaring Iran, Syria and North Korea as the Axis of Evil and vowed to have them neutralized. Apparently, just as his promise to bring the head of Osama bin Laden on a stick, President Bush failed to resolve The Axis. Presently, the U.S. is stuck in Iraq were our national treasury is being sucked dry at $2 billion a week and our troops casualties are climbing in the tens of thousands. Worst, President Bush redeployed our troops from Afghanistan into Iraq which didn’t have any thing to do with 9/11. Since the intelligence of WMDs in Iraq was false from the inception the battle to win Iraq is a losing proposition. Answer: redeploy troops back to Afghanistan.
October 20th, 2006 at 4:25 amHistorians all over the world already see what’s happening in Iraq as a perfect Vietnam-analogy. Only the Bush-team is still in denial. Once again the US thought it could use its military to solve civil problems. Once again the US was far too trigger happy. Once again the US showed the world they know nothing but themselves and have no interest in anything but themselves. Once again the US is defeated by a meaningless ‘enemy’ because of its own arrogance. Once again only the political leaders keep claiming the war will be won when everyone already knows the US has lost. Once again the US lets the innocent suffer for merely having a different opinion. History will matter again, no matter how hard Bush and his cronies try to erase our memories.
October 20th, 2006 at 6:36 amTHE PRESIDENT: “I think the analogy is false…
October 20th, 2006 at 10:02 amI had a plan to get out of Viet Nam, heh heh heh.”
Caption:
“Askin’ me these questions is gonna make my mother kick all o’ your sorry as*es, umhm!”
October 20th, 2006 at 1:26 pmHenk, you got!
October 20th, 2006 at 1:26 pmWhen do the impeachment proceedings start?
October 20th, 2006 at 4:12 pmand what wrong message would be sent to the troops: maybe that america is led by a lying, awol coward, who does not have a f’n clue about iraq.
October 21st, 2006 at 12:51 pm