Turning Iraq Into Vietnam
Desperate to shore up support for continuing his unpopular war on Iraq, George W. Bush drew an analogy with Vietnam when he addressed the Veterans of Foreign Wars. “The price of America’s withdrawal [from Vietnam] was paid by millions of innocent citizens,” Bush declared. But he overlooked the four million Indochinese and 58,000 American soldiers who paid the ultimate price for that imperial war. And the myriad Vietnamese and Americans who continue to suffer the devastating effects of the defoliant Agent Orange the U.S. forces dropped on Vietnam. The 10 years it took to end our war there claimed untold numbers of lives.
Bush cited the “killing fields,” referring to the more than one million Cambodians who died after we pulled out of Vietnam. He failed to mention that if Richard Nixon had ended the war by 1969, as the antiwar movement was demanding, the war wouldn’t have extended into Cambodia. Secret U.S. carpet bombing of Cambodia destroyed that country, enabling Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge to come to power. Nixon, too, had warned of a bloodbath in Vietnam to justify continuing his war.Contrary to the picture Bush painted, Vietnam is a unified, stable country that doesn’t threaten the region; it has become a trading partner of the United States.
In his desperation to rationalize the death and destruction he is wreaking in Iraq, Bush credited the United States with the great progress South Korea and Japan have made. He didn’t say that the people of North and South Korea seek to reunify their country but the United States stands in the way. And Bush neglected to add that his government is pressuring Japan to repeal Article 9 of its Peace Constitution which now forbids the aggressive use of military force.
George Bush also reiterated that Iraq is “the central front” of the war on terror. But for his invasion, war and occupation of Iraq, however, al Qaeda wouldn’t be there.
Bush claimed “our troops are seeing this progress that is being made on the ground.” Perhaps the President didn’t read the elegant op-ed that seven infantrymen and noncommissioned officers penned in the New York Times last week. “The claim that we are increasingly in control of the battlefield in Iraq is an assessment arrived at through a flawed, American-centered framework,” they wrote. The soldiers noted the two million Iraqis in refugee camps and close to two million more who are internally displaced. “Four years into our occupation, we have failed on every promise, while we have substituted Baath Party tyranny with a tyranny of Islamist, militia and criminal violence.”
The only reason we stayed in Vietnam as long as we did was to avoid the U.S. superpower from being perceived as the “loser.” American involvement in Vietnam finally ended because our soldiers refused to fight, our people took to the streets in record numbers, Nixon was weakened by his impending impeachment, and the North Vietnamese - unlike the government in the South - won the hearts and minds of the Vietnamese people.
Congress has no more will to end the Iraq War than it did the Vietnam War. It was one year after our troops came home that Congress finally cut the funding for all support of the South Vietnamese government; Nixon didn’t veto the bill because he needed insurance against impeachment. There is no substantial support in Congress or among the leading presidential candidates to bring all the troops home and disband the mega-bases Bush has built in Iraq.
Resistance to the Iraq War will continue to grow within the military. Like the Vietnamese, the Iraqis will be instrumental in ending Bush’s war. The soldiers pegged it in their op-ed: Iraqis “will soon realize that the best way to regain their dignity is to call us what we are - an army of occupation - and force our withdrawal.”
Marjorie Cohn is a professor at Thomas Jefferson School of Law and President of the National Lawyers Guild. Her new book, Cowboy Republic: Six Ways the Bush Gang Has Defied the Law, was just published. Her articles are archived at http://www.marjoriecohn.com.
Bush’s reference to the killing fields problem was the most bizarre justification yet: we need perpetual war, since stopping it might lead to death? By this logic, the US should declare war on everyone — it saves lives.
if we end our bloodbath and go home, a bloodbath might ensue!
can anyone tell me why i mustn’t say publically that george bush should be assassinated but he can kill more than a million iraqis and nothing comes of it?
please someone.
end this presidency.
“There is no substantial support in Congress or among the leading presidential candidates to bring all the troops home and disband the mega-bases Bush has built in Iraq”
Especially not when heading into a presidential election year. It’s our old Teutonic idiocy — “We didn’t lose in Vietnam/Iraq, we were stabbed in the back by cowardly politicians who lost the will to win!” Thus fascists disarm opposition in elective regimes.
The United States bathes in imperialistic ethos. Look back at the history.
After WWII it became a military garrison state serving the needs of the growing and thriving military industrial complex—a machinery in perpetual need of fresh blood. Yes, it is an orwellian “monster.”
Our beloved usurper/leader made Iraq an “offer it can’t refuse”: we’ll end this illegal occupation ONLY after you’ve signed away your oil field to us—that is the “benchmark” that must be completed!!!! So, it’s never about “killing fields,” “re-education camps,” or preventing “bloodbaths.” It’s about $$$$$$$$$$$$.
Beware of standing armies stationed in hundreds of bases around the globe and forever looking for missions.
Through the 19th and early 20th century, American politicians gloried in the word “empire”. It only slid out of public discourse after WWII — the War Department was rebaptized “Department of Defense” and “the empire” now became “Leader of the Free World.”
When Gore Vidal called the US an empire from the ’50s on, he was called cracked — until, of course, it became impossible for any but the most demented to deny it any longer . . .
Impeachment is the proper course of action. Professor Cohn as Colbert might say, nailed Bush.
I would like to hear her thoughts on the constitutionality of the California referendum to reallocate California’s electoral votes. I thought the Constitution delegated that authority to the legislature’s of the states not to public referendums.
Only these beasts running the government could reawaken hostilities between people who had begun to be reconciled:
““It is very ill-considered and, frankly, cavalier to make use of Vietnam in such a way to extricate himself from the Iraq debate,” said Ton Nu Thi Ninh, former deputy chair of the foreign relations committee of Vietnam’s National Assembly. “Opening this up again can only rekindle resentment, antagonisms that have been put on the shelf for the sake of looking into the future.”
Vietnam was “an unjustified and a wrong war in the first place so to start analysing things only from the withdrawal of US troops is really puzzling”, she said. “The root of the problem is not the withdrawal, it’s the very fact of starting up the war in the first place.”
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/152b3d0a-527a-11dc-a7ab-0000779fd2ac.html
Why doesn’t The Great and Glorious Rhetorical Genius George Wanker Bush just change Iraq’s name to Shangri-La or Xanadu? Wouldn’t this solve his problems? It’s the kind of gesture that a moron like him can get his tiny, subatomic mind around.
Another stupid senseless war based on another stupid senseless theory.
Randolph Bourne - “War is the Health of the State”
Vietnam was just utter rubbish, and sad to say same thing is happening.Wonders how many rapes and plunders are going on in Iraq, if Vietnam was anything to go by?
The Iraqis have been “asking” us to get out for years now. Cheney’s response: Go f**k yourself.
I guess the United States will have to look like Germany and Japan in 1945, with the same percentage of casualties before we are humbled enough as a nation to say no to war and violence. The bully must be stopped!
Americans have a taste for violence, and things blowing up, except when one of their loved ones becomes a statistic.
Everybody in the U.S. military took an oath to defend the Constitution , not the Bush Crime Family. They have every right to refuse to take part in crimes against humanity. If the “superman” was punished for only following orders, which the court would not except, then our military should also be held to the same standard.
Karma is a son of a gun!
Iraq is America’s last and final chance to rewrite history and win in Vietnam. If they fail here they will have run out of excuses as to why they did not win in Vietnam. Bush ought to know all about Vietnam, as he watched the debacle from the outside.
Peaceman, you hit the nail on the head. One of those very “scary” truths I dare say. The modern U.S hasn’t even come close to being humbled by war. The 9/11 attacks were shocking, horrifying, and extremely criminal but only directly affected a very tiny percentage of the U.S population. Even our pull-out from Vietnam didn’t result in anything close to catastrophe on the home-front.
Considering what happened to Germany and Japan, it’s quite easy to understand why those countries haven’t started any wars for a VERY long time now. Obvious, I know… I pray that never has to happen to the U.S for us to wisen up.
Bring our troops home; then make excuses for why you did this.
For those interested in a psychological analysis of warmongering, I have recently completed a 10-minute online video entitled “Resisting the Drums of War.” It examines how the Bush administration has promoted the misguided and destructive war in Iraq by targeting five core concerns that often govern our lives–concerns about vulnerability, injustice, distrust, superiority, and helplessness. Looking ahead, the continuing occupation of Iraq–or an attack on Iran–will likely be sold to us in much the same way. The video examines these warmongering appeals and how to counter them. It’s available for viewing HERE.
PAVROVIAN DOG: Exactly!
PEACE IS TRUTH & DICHTERFREUND: Good postings.
Peaceistruth: I also pray that it doesn’t have to happen to us, but when ” armed force” is used to justify the means to the end, and is unchallenged, the resultant consequence is devasting. World history is full of these horrors. I don’t want to preach to the choir, but for new or uninformed readers of this CD article and comments, I”ll add a few more things.
Jack London, the novelist, covered the Russo-Japanese War at the turn of the 20th Century for the Hearst papers ( the Japanese beat the Russians in that war ) and interviewed some Army officers in Japan. They explained to him that they were “the master race” and it was basically their destiny to shape and control Asia first, and then the rest of the world. Furthermore, because Japan has very little natural resources, it was imperative for them to invade and “occupy” other nations and extract the resources of the “host” nations in order to build a mighty military machine as well as a modern infrastructure at home.
Think of the collective power of thought, when it is unified, Common Dreamers .
Around 1900, or so, the ruling class in Japan deceided to become a world power, the national goal was set for the people to support that effort. Within forty years, The Red Sun went from a feudal society to a world power, and you all know the rest of the story. I’ll add one footnote to this paragraph. Georges Oshawa, who started the “macrobiotic” food movement, was imprisoned in his own country for telling the Tojo government that Japan would lose and suffer if they started a war, especially against the U,S. He was an advocate for world peace, but the modern war lords disagreed. One more thing on Japan. On the July 23, 2007 NYTimes.com, there is a good article titled,”Bomb by Bomb,Japan Sheds Military Restraints”. I suggest you read this article if you haven’t already.
Back to the other”master race” people in Europe. A German woman friend of mine was a small child in Germany during World War Two. ( she and her parents moved to America after the war. I met her parents on several occasions and they were as nice and gentle as can be ) Anyway, in the many, many parades with the Reichsfuher waving at the masses, my friend’s Mother didn’t give the salute as the future maniac drove by. When asked by a nearby Gestapo goon why she was disrespectful to the Fuher, she said, “that guy’s an idiot!’ , and the cop slapped her in the face. Her Father was a common soldier fighting on the Eastern Front, and was captured by the Red Army. He says, in spite of the millions of Soviet citizens killed and maimed by the Germans, the Russians actually treated the common soldiers “decently”, but the SS troops that were captured suffered torture and execution because of their atrocities.
What we are seeing since 9/11, is the Fourth Reich taking place, here in our beloved nation.
Dr Eidelson: Thank you so much for making the video on YOU TUBE. I watched it before writing this post, and will contact you about lecturing to our peace movement in central California.
Wishfullthinker: Good points.
Dear Dr Eidelson:
The Roman (American) masses will never bring about the demise of their own empire no matter how many arguments you give them. What more arguments are needed than there were no weapons of mass destruction, the war is being lost, anti-Americanism is rising exponentially, the financial structure of the empire is crumbling, and the US is at the mercy of its creditors? Americans already know. By the way, you forgot to address status and pride.
The imperial world order, centered in Washington, is being successfully challenged by China, Russia, Iran, the SCO, Brazil, Argentina, Venezuela, and others because the US no longer towers over the rest of the world as after WWII. US hegemony is ending because the time is ripe and the rest of the world sees you for what you are. Whether or not Americans have the psychological tools to accept the defeat of their imperial democracy is impertinent. The world is clearly not waiting for you.
The US invasion of Cambodia, a friendly government, led directly to the killing fields. It was the Vietnamese who drove out Pol Pot, even though more bombs had been dropped on them than all the bombs dropped in WWII and the US had, at the height of the Vietnam War, 545,000 troops there and stayed for over a decade. Also, similar justifications are now being used to attack Iran as were used to invade Cambodia.
Another parallel. Vietnameization didn’t work and Iraqization isn’t working.
Another parallel. “The surge is working” = “there’s light at the end of the tunnel” (a well known Vietnam era LBJ line).
Another parallel. Bush supported the Vietnam war but ducked combat. Bush initiated the Iraq Combat but none of his family serve.
As a Viet-Nam era veteran it is truly chilling to see the parallels between these two conflicts. In Viet-Nam we replaced a failed French attempt to re-establish their colonial empire after WWII. We were fighting freedom fighters who wanted to be free from the French, the Japanese, and the Americans. Our policy makers were blinded by the paranoid fear of “communism” when it was Vietnamese nationalism that was the motivation. We were on the wrong side in that conflict. Ho Chi Minh had admired America for it’s revolutionary war against the British Empire. As for the American involvement in Viet-Nam, Mr. Kissinger is not the only individual who should be standing trial in the Hague for the genocide in Cambodia.
As for the Middle East, it is the failed policies of both the British and French Empires to provide political solutions for all peoples in the region that has generated a perpetual genocide machine. Oil had become so important that these empires created “states” like Kuwait from Iraq and they fostered tyrants like Saddam Hussein who forgot their place in a world dominated by EuroAmerican interests. Bush invaded Iraq to “take out” Israel’s implacable foe and Bush is staying in Iraq to re-open the old British oil pipeline from Kirkuk to Haifa (talk to any of the current veterans returning from Anbar province).
Jane’s Intelligence Digest:
http://www.janes.com/regional_news/africa_middle_east/news/fr/fr030416_1_n.shtml
There is no reason for the neocons and corporate elites to change their tactics because they work with enough of the population that they have been in power for over 25 years.
Lowering tax rates on the wealthy are claimed to INCREASE revenue - so logically a zero % rate would yield infinite revenue. We will grow ourselves out of deficit by massive deficit spending. We will increase peace in Iraq by a surge in occupation forces. We will have high employment by outsourcing jobs and bringing in massive legal and illegal (slave) labor. on and on
These are all current lies - Why not attempt historical lies about Vietnam? It was an unpleasant time and people remember less about history than current events.
PEACEMAN: Evocative, interesting posting.
LUPITA: You’re right on! It’s interesting watching Latin America and Asia enter into their own Renaissance as the US falls behind on so many levels.
Hey Peaceman, saw your reference to Central Valley. I’ll be at the vigil. I’m usually at the Peace Corner first friday of every month.
Joe Toxic: Sorry for being less specific. I should have said ‘Central Coast’ of California instead of ‘Central California’. I’m glad you responded, Joe. Do you listen to KPFA FM radio on 88.1 FM out of the Fresno area? It’s the creme de la creme of the ‘PACIFICA’ Stations, and the best station on the planet. ( I’m biased ) Keep in touch, brother.
Siouxrose: If Bush is the “decider” then I’m the “evocator”. With scandals and detrimental decisions happening almost on a daily basis with this Administration, remember the missing 190,000 rifles supplied to the Iraqi Army by ol’ reliable Sam’, our now infamous uncle is passe’. There was hardly a yawn by Congress or the Pentagon about these weapons. Correct me if you will. Now the peaceman evokes a (non) bloody war story that will make “The Battle of Okinawa’ look like a Laurel and Hardy film.
Decades ago, when I was in the Army protecting damsels like yourself from whoever was selected to play the role of the ‘bad guy’ somewhere in the world, a calamity occured in our unit (I was in the infantry) that could have started WW3. Our battalion (about 550-600 troops) was out in the field on manuvers for about 2 weeks or so and were going back to the barracks the next day. A guy in my squad lost his bayonnet and the Colonel said nobody was returning to base camp until the ‘weapon’ was found. The entire battalion would spread out in a line, looking in the grass, dirt, bushes, and whatever until the ‘weapon’ was found. The guys in the other four companies were slightly perturbed at our company, but mass punishment is mass punishment. About seven hours later, most of the guys were bitching, and I even had the nerve to say, “it’s only a (expletives deleated) knife”, but the bayonnet was treated as if it were an atomic bomb. By mid afternoon of the first day of the manhunt for the missing ‘weapon’ the fellow who lost it ‘found’ it on the ground near a tree. To this day I wonder about that incident. The analogy between a lost bayonnet in the States and 190,000 pea shooters in Iraq may be in poor taste to some, but can you see the differences in standards between then and now?
Lupita: I agree with Siouxrose. Watch the SCO, because I’m betting on them to stop the bully.