Three times the North Vietnamese were brought to the peace talks table and each time were given a reprieve and a glimmer of hope they could win by the anti war protesters and supporters of communist rule. When the Congress announced that it was no longer going to fund the war so we could win the communist in the north started to move south. Yes, it is as you wrote a gradual advance and as each province was taken by the north the words of the atrocities preceded them. s we retreated they advanced, careful not too attack our troops to give us an excuse to come back until there were only a few hundred troops left in the country then they attacked to make a show of throwing us out of their country.
If we abruptly pull our troops out of Iraq the same thing will happen only a little faster.




This would be true if the surge was designed to hunt down AQ. The purpose of the surge was to change the minds of the locals that were supporting AQ. This worked great! By the way the leader of AQ in Iraq was captured thanks to the change of position of the locals. Also captured was his laptop computer with a huge amount of information in it and to top it off the leader of AQ in Iraq told us that the entire movement was designed to give the impression that the locals were attacking our troops when in fact AQ in Iraq was made up of foreigners not locals. The locals (Iraqis) are now fighting on our side and they know were AQ is allowing us to focus the surge on those areas. All of this is public knowledge on the NYT, Washington Post, AP, and CNN all flaming right wing news organizations.



It is not the militaries function to play politics it is the militaries function to kill people and break things. During our nations early years we had insurgents from Briton, France and Spain trying to destroy our political way of life. Are you suggesting that although we did not stop the internal problems until after the Spanish American war in the 1800’s early 1900’s that Iraq should all come together in four years? Try being realistic, it took the soviet Union sixty years to work out its problems and ten years later the nation collapsed and is starting to rebuild.



This move will clearly make it easy for the nation of Iraq to be taken over by our enemies.



Yes, either way we do this, either by doing it your way or doing it your other way we will lose. However doing it the way the President and his generals are fighting the war seems to have worked and worked well. Yes, there were some set backs and some missteps but overall AQ is losing ground in this war in more than just Iraq and Afghanistan pay attention to the news and you will see how we are winning in other countries as well. If you listen to hate radio, and the people in the news that are only interested defeating the president then you will only see and hear news that is bad and demoralizing.

They say that the life of a nation is roughly 200 years.  I guess we did pass that back in the 70s.  For regardless of what we do or how we do it, there are always going to be segments that bring up Vietnam.  It is a shame, but hardly surprising. 

The parallel with Vietnam is none of these.  The parallel is that the soldiers won, the politicians lost it.  I dont expect that to change in the future given the current color of the streak of democrats.

Would that colour be amber in your opinion?

I was thinking saffron.

To both of you:remove your rose colored glasses. Though, I suppose, according to you, my fate is to wear yellow glasses.

It is a shame, but hardly surprising.

Yes, it is a shame that Bush brought it up. 

If you listen to hate radio, and the people in the news that are only interested defeating the president then you will only see and hear news that is bad and demoralizing.

 I don't but obviously you do.

 

The locals (Iraqis) are now fighting on our side and they know were AQ is allowing us to focus the surge on those areas.

Tell that to our troops.

Try being realistic

apples and oranges, unrealistic to compare our history with a Muslim nation of rabid fundamentalists who had no country until eighty years ago but a dark age history for fourteen hundred years.

be taken over by our enemies

 Iraq is our enemy. Had we not fought a war walking on eggs it would be under our control long ago to give us the time to truly build a democracy there,

If we abruptly pull our troops out of Iraq the same thing will happen only a little faster.

No suggestion of an "abrupt"--implications being chaotic--withdrawal.

Let me see if I get this righ.

The Democrats have been trying to equate the war in Iraq is just like Vietnam since before we went in to Iraq. The claims of ten thousand body bags the first week was the start. Senator Kennedy called it a quagmire when the troops stopped to refuel and rearm on the third day of the war.
DNC chairman Howard Dean compared the war to Vietnam. A host of democrats have likened the war in Iraq to Vietnam for four years and the president responds to those lies and hyperbole once and you call him the bad guy for bringing it up. This is confusing have you not paid attention to the news in the last seven years?

This is confusing

I only referred to Bush's intent to conjure up the image of the chaotic exodus and drive fear into the hearts of the people.

I really hate to burst your bubble....but that is "EXACTLY" what our troops are telling us.

Yes, he did remind us all of the problems with leaving before the job is done. The danger of leaving now will lead to a blood bath over there and bolster our enemies. When we left Vietnam we declared victory and they declared victory, we won every battle except three in Vietnam, the enemy was on its death bed three times and ready to end the war on our terms each time. Then the people who say they want peace leak information that inflames the anti-war movement giving the enemy hope that if they hold on just long enough we will quit. The congress quit funding the war after voting to start the war. Very similar to this current war. The congress wants to cut funding to end the war just like in Vietnam we will lose and they will kill as many of us on our home soil as they can because we are weak and deserve to die, in their eyes. We won’t be able to go back into the Middle East because no one will trust us again. Twice we will have started a war and run away because of our lack of political will to finish the job.
That is what the President was reminding us of.

On the other hand the democrats have been bringing up Vietnam as a way to turn people against the war for political reasons just like in Vietnam. They have been doing this for four years and only once did the President respond to the political attacks that have run for years, lies, half truths, and an attitude of win at any cost has dominated the democrat party since Mr. Reagan won the presidency. Your mention of what President Bush bringing up Vietnam to bring fear to the nation is strange since for years you have not mentioned or complained about the democrats doing the same thing for the length of the war. The consequences if the democrats are right are we pick up and move on. If the democrats are wrong we will have handed a great victory to our enemy and if you don’t think that will not boost the recruiting efforts of the enemy you are crazy.

No! it is Mr. Bush telling us this, and the generals, and the troops on the ground, and the Iraqi government, and the Iraqi troops, and the Iraqi civilians. Why listen to those people who have an agenda? We should listen to the terrorists and the Iranians because they will tell us the truth.