This foreigner is bold to drive a moto in Vietnam, though Hue is much more relaxed than Saigon or even Hanoi. I remember watching traffic, looking for someone to stop but traffic just kept coming. Fortunately I'm big enough (especially with a forty pound backpack) to be viewed as an obstacle so I would remove my glasses, stop looking at approaching motos and just start crossing the street. As long as I maintained a steady pace, motos would just go around me without problem. You'll get a sense of the flow in this video but it does take some time to adjust.
In Hanoi, we met a towering Aussie who resembled a rugby player, but was terrified of the traffic. He told us that he couldn't bring himself to cross the street to enter the train station because of the endless and chaotic traffic. A little boy noticed his fear so the kid grabbed his hand and walked the 6'4" Aussie across the street, without problem. Ahhh, travel.
Who needs to study history any way? What could we possibly learn about people lying to drag a country into war? Then again, if you were drunk or blowing coke at the time, you might not have remembered any of it anyway.
The author of the report "demonstrates that not only is it not true, as (then US) secretary of defense Robert McNamara told Congress, that the evidence of an attack was 'unimpeachable,' but that to the contrary, a review of the classified signals intelligence proves that 'no attack happened that night,'" FAS said in a statement.
"What this study demonstrated is that the available intelligence shows that there was no attack. It's a dramatic reversal of the historical record," Aftergood said.
Honesty, consistency and integrity have no meaning to George Bush. He'll say anything to sell his failed Iraq policy. Today, as we've noted, he invoked Vietnam. But, as the Senate Democrats rightly point out, Bush was against that comparison before he was for it:
In 2004, Bush Opposed Comparison Between Iraq and Vietnam:
QUESTION: Thank you, Mr. President. 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. Look, this is hard work. It's hard to advance freedom in a country that has been strangled by tyranny. And, yet, we must stay the course, because the end result is in our nation's interest. [Press Conference by the President, 4/13/04]
In 2007, Bush Embraced Comparison Between Iraq and Vietnam:
“‘I want to remind you that after Vietnam, after we left, millions of people lost their life,’ Bush said here when an audience member asked about comparisons between Vietnam and Iraq. ‘The Khmer Rouge, for example, in Cambodia. And my concern is there would be a parallel. . . . The same thing would happen. There would be the slaughter of a lot of innocent life. The difference, of course, is that this time around, the enemy wouldn't just be content to stay in the Middle East; they'd follow us here.’” [Washington Post, 4/20/07]
Today, Bush Embraced Comparison Between Iraq and Vietnam. “Finally, there was Vietnam. This is a complex and painful subject for many Americans, and the tragedy of Vietnam is too large to be contained in one speech. So I will limit myself to one argument that has particular significance today. Then as now, people argued that the real problem was America’s presence and that if we would just withdraw, the killing would end.” [President Bush Speech to VFW, 8/22/07]
After Bush's Vietnam speech this morning, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid blasted him in that way Harry Reid does:
President Bush's speech this morning missed the mark yet again. Instead of providing the country with a history lesson, the President should be reevaluating his flawed strategies that have led to one of the worst foreign policy blunders in our nation's history. Today our soldiers remain caught in the middle of a civil war and the President's strategy is still failing to deliver the political solution necessary for Iraq's stability. A change of course in Iraq is long overdue, and Congress will continue to fight for that change in the coming weeks – a change that is essential for America's national security.
Harry Reid said what most Americans are thinking. It's really too bad Bush doesn't listen to Harry Reid and the American people.
Certifiably insane. That's the Republican model for winning in Iraq - Vietnam. You see, if we just stayed longer in Vietnam, fought longer in Vietnam, lost more American lives in Vietnam, everything would have ended okay.
You just have to wonder about the delta between what the VA is supposed to do and what they do in reality. Does the VA ever show an interest in helping US veterans? Five years ago while in a VA waiting room I recall being surprised when one Vietnam vet was sharing a story related to his exposure to Agent Orange and his disability and his neighbor only then learning about the links between the chemical and physical conditions that were known problems. It's shameful how poorly the VA treats vets and the Agent Orange scandal has gone on for long enough.
Bush apparently hates comparing his war in Iraq to the war that he and Cheney avoided in Vietnam. Given the failure that is the Iraq war, it is, of course, an appropriate comparison. But, Bush never lets facts get in the way:
President George W. Bush and fellow Republicans struggled on Thursday with comparisons between the U.S. wars in Iraq and Vietnam as the Senate's top Democrat declared the Iraq lost.
A day after a White House meeting with lawmakers failed to resolve differences over whether to attach a troop withdrawal plan to a war funding bill, Bush and the Democrats continued their feud from afar.
Asked to compare Iraq to Vietnam, a war that still weighs on the American psyche three decades after it ended, Bush told an Ohio audience a premature U.S. withdrawal from Iraq could lead to chaos and death the same way war broke out between Vietnam and the Khmer Rouge of Cambodia after the fall of Saigon in 1975.
"After Vietnam, after we left, millions of people lost their life. My concern is there would be a parallel there," Bush said, adding that "This time around, the enemy wouldn't just be content to stay in the Middle East, they'd follow us here."
Follow us here. What a line. If Bush had spent the last five years fighting the real terrorists and building up our national security, we wouldn't have to worry that they could follow us here. But, Bush chose a political strategy instead of a security strategy. And, Iraq is actually a bigger disaster than Vietnam.
This year, The Ridenhour Truth-Telling Prize links the Vietman whistle blower for whom the award is named to an Iraq whistleblower. Ron Ridenhour exposed the My Lai massacre in 1969. Donald Vance told the truth about how U.S. detention practices in Iraq because he learned them first-hand:
Donald Vance, a 29-year-old Navy veteran, had been a long-time supporter of the war in Iraq. But that changed last April when, serving as a security contractor in Baghdad, he was detained by U.S. forces and held without charges for more than three months at Camp Cropper, one of Iraq’s most notorious military prison camps. There, Vance and a colleague, Nathan Ertel, were denied counsel and communication with the outside world. They were held in isolation in extremely cold cells without adequate clothing or blankets. Vance was also subjected to sleep deprivation, interrogation for hours and often denied food and water for long periods. The U.S. military eventually released both Vance and Ertel without explanation, admitting that they had done nothing wrong.
Vance secretly kept notes on his time at Camp Cropper and smuggled them out in a Bible. He took his story public in December, offering a detailed and verifiable account of his experiences to the New York Times. His report has provided a rare and credible inside account of the Pentagon’s detention operations — and is one of only a few stories to emerge since the abuse scandals at Abu Ghraib.
I remember reading that article about Vance in the NY Times. We wrote about it here. It was brutal. Vance receives his award on April 4th at the National Press Club. (While Vance is in DC, he should tell his story on Capitol Hill.)
