I smell a rat

In 2004, as Iraq was mutating from desert to quicksand, George W. Bush flatly rejected the Vietnam analogy. Yesterday he went over the top to seize it, to claim it as his own.

He argued before the Veterans of Foreign Wars that ending our ill-conceived and dreadfully executed occupation would amount to "pull[ing] the rug out from under" our troops -- as, presumably, we did in Vietnam -- and urged "today’s generation of Americans [to] resist the deceptive allure of retreat." Taking yet more historical license, he said "Then, as now, people argued that the real problem was America’s presence, and that if we would just withdraw, the killing would end.... The world would learn just how costly these misimpressions would be."

The New York Times reported that "Mr. Bush’s speech was interrupted frequently by cheers from the crowd and by occasional standing ovations." Yes, and odds are, next week the cheers and ovations from the American Legion crowd will be even greater, as this vulgar hysteria feeds on itself.

The pundits are stumped. What could Bush be thinking? Why this Vietnam-analogy argument, now? Why the 180? What's the sense of it all?

Well, as one is so justifiably inclined to do with this endlessly scheming White House, I smell a rat. A big, ugly one.

First a little background, as dangled by the Times: "With his comments, Mr. Bush tried something that few leading politicians of either party have tried in a generation: Reopening the national argument over the Vietnam War, a conflict that ended more than three decades ago but has remained an emotional national touchstone.

"And he was giving rare political voice to the views of those who -- like many in the [VFW] hall today -- believe that the American pullout from Vietnam was a mistake, and who reject the popular view among Baby Boomers that America should never have sent troops there in the first place."

And therein, I suspect, lies the aforementioned rat.

Bush Inc. originally wanted to muscle its way into Iraq to demonstrate American power; specifically, to undo the damage that Vietnam's legacy had done to America's superpower image. The administration was, in a sense, refighting Vietnam in 2003. This time we would win -- quickly, easily, cleanly -- and thus restore our superpower status in full. And with the Soviet Union gone, that status would be a lone one.

But, of course, nothing went according to plan. So now, the Bush administration has made the conscious and calculated decision to refight Vietnam at home as well -- partially as an arm-twisting tactic against a disgruntled Congress, but principally as a political strategy that goes far beyond that.

Which is to say, the administration may be hoping to violently divide this nation at large -- much as Vietnam violently divided us -- and, above all, put that violence and divide on the streets. It seeks to reawaken Nixon's hardhats-and-veterans crowd as its visible cadre. It longs for a reissuance of right-wing "America: Love it or leave it" sloganeering in action.

Perhaps this, finally, will prod the antiwar crowd to take to the streets -- to protest and make rude, loud, and "unAmerican" noises. Nothing would please the White House more. With a little luck, the antiwar crowd will emerge as ill-clad youth; the media can then have a grand time portraying them as the benighted, menacing face of all antiwar Americans. Many still sitting on the ideological fence would side with the clean cut, and others with mild antiwar inclinations might retreat out of disgust.

In short, the administration's seemingly bizarre reversal on the Vietnam analogy might very well come down to nothing more than a sociopolitical do-over at home. In seeking that bloody division of old -- which the political right then cynically cast as the dividing line between the patriotic and unpatriotic, the American and unAmerican -- it can at least buy some time, if not remake America, at long last, in its right-wing image.

Comments

[Carl from L.A.]

Boy, you give a lot of credit to a bunch of people who have demonstrated again and again their inability to carry out plans as complex as this one.

I think the Bushies are flailing around trying to find any line of talk that will obscure the colossal military disaster they have perpetrated, and this is just one more attempt.

As gullible as the American people have proven themselves, I doubt that they will show enough interest in a thirty year old national humiliation to get worked up over it.

[Ned]

Bringing mobs of ill-clad youth might be possible if the draft was reinstated. Of course a draft would kill that yellow elephant organization called College Republicans. Most of whom would become ill-clad youth protesters in the streets. The remainder would either flee to Mummy and Daddy's second home in Canada or, get deferments on bended knees, to service err... serve the Conservative cause.

[Thomas Mc]

This is like Germany claiming they would have won WWII, if only Hitler hadn't given up.

[Montag]

Thomas Mc got it right--it's the return of the "Stab In The Back" excuse that was used both by German Nationalists after WWI and by Nixon's "Silent Majority" after Vietnam.

Anthony Cordesman called Bush's VFW speech a "tortured misuse of history."

[Don Robertson, The American Philosopher]

Well, for one, I believe the whole shebang has been planned and executed exactly according to script beginning with the foreseen-as-necessary Pearl Harbor event called for by the manifest of The New American Century, to the baffoon standing on the aircraft carrier proclaiming a victory in hand (two-for-two Bush), to now nearly 4000 American soldiers dead and ten times as many seriously wounded, the further ratcheting up the cost of by the leveraging of our childrens' future with the-payments-you-can-afford-paradigm for valuing housing on the fake housing market, the subprime collapse and the occurring and imminent bailout that will ensure inflation beyond anyone's wildest imagination, thus destroying and taking back even more than the minimum wage increases passed this year by that gimmie-a-raise Congress, an even a steadier stream of illegal aliens being imported like sides of beef into the country to drive down wages here, and the country teetering into a well-planned war with the Iran and whoever else might like to tussle, which will doubtlessly be very few when they see what is so unabashedly and piously unleashed upon those Iranian devil-infidels.

No. I believe what we are seeing topday is the very first Existentialist Adminstration.

They believe in absolutely nothing but power, absolute power, and otherwise, nothing else.

They have read The Prince as if it were written by some silly junior high school kid bent on being the class president.

I would not doubt that a statue of both Alexander and Caligula is somewhere in the Rose Garden.

The comparison to Vietnam is unjust, and even stupid.

Comparing Vietnam to the Middle East Oil War we see transpiring before our stunned eyes is like comparing the Bay of Pigs to D-Day.

These boyz is going to kill us all if they can't have their way with the world.

And they know exactly how to do it too. It's likely been long since planned in exquisite detail.

You ain't gonna vote your way outta this mess, kids.

The only hope now is philosophy the way Diogenes did it.

You may recall from reading history, Diogenes told Alexander, "Yes, Alexander there is something you can do for me. Step out of the sunlight that warms my body."

And Alexander was left with nothing more than to slink away ashamed for having ever asked.

Don Robertson, The American Philosopher

[liquified viscera]

I agree with Don Robertson.

It takes mighty bad aim to throw the charge of incompetence in the direction of the Bush-Cheney Crime Syndicate. The incompetence is that of the American citizen, who prefers to shop or TV-watch his/her way to nirvana.

We live in a nation of eedjits. It is no surprise that we have the Bush-Cheney Crime Syndicate wringing the last few dollars out of the American economy, and taking all that plunder for themselves.

They do not care about the rest of us. They surely will kill us if we do not correct the course of America. They mean to enslave us, indirectly of course, but the slavery will be there all the same.

Go re-read 1984, folks. Orwell saw this coming.

[George May]

Letter to Congress 8-23-07

Hello, I am a registered voter and have been for 32 years. I followed the Watergate scandal very closely and thank God there were people in government then who wanted President Nixon to be stopped.
This administration thinks it has figured out a way to circumvent congress and do whatever illegal thing it wants to, to stay in power (yes I believe that this is a power situation).
Well now, as an American citizen and war veteran I want you to impeach President Bush, Vice-President Chaney and Attorney General Gonzales. You elected officials must impeach them-take away their power and freedom to do what they want-so we Americans can have our freedom back. Do I really need to point out the high crimes and misdemeanors they have committed against American citizens and the world? I don't have enough space here to do that. You have my full support to impeach them. Thank you in advance, George May.

[Bob]

It really doesn't matter what the village Idiot says.He has no credibility.does he? Old nazi cranks from the VFW?Likely drunk as they were before they signed up or were drafted.Booze talking.
Laughed at them then,still do.
Just willful ignorance.unfortunately Quite Pervasive.What to do?Fight them,Boycott their business,Look harder for alternatives.You're going to have to anyway.Fix your own stuff.Buy used privately and avoid sales tax.Repair.Be your own person.Inconvience yourself. Help the like minded,they are out there.Revolt,pay cash.Yes they have divided us,again.Go with that flow.Desciminate.Learn to say no.Speak truth to power.As it stands we limped into the 21st century,a wreck.Lets finish this ourselves and not wait for any more punches.and quit being shocked by the Village Idoit

[The Oracle]

Bush and Cheney definitely want to attack Iran. Thus the recent (and ongoing) hyping of the supposed imminent Iranian threat. Thus the recent (and ongoing) Republican "talking points" to stoke hysteria over Iran.

And now Bush reverses his previous position (flip-flops?) and starts comparing the Iraq quagmire to the Vietnam quagmire.

So, when will we hear Ho Chi Minh Trail mentioned, with the new Ho Chi Minh Trail leading to Teheran??? Or Damascus??? But not south into Saudi Arabia.

I figure the criminals in the Bush administration will cherry-pick the Vietnam War analogy, just like they cherry-picked intelligence to fraudulently lie us into a war in Iraq.

So, Syria and Iran will overnight become the new Cambodia and Laos, and we all know what Nixon and Kissinger did, ordering secret bombing of these nations neighboring Vietnam, trying to shut down the North Vietnamese pipeline into South Vietnam.

And we've already heard the neo-con nuts pitching this "Vietnam connection" in one way or another in relation to Iraq.

The only branches of our military that aren't heavily invested (and bogged down) in the ground war inside Iraq are our navy and our air force. Thus, recent neo-con remarks that the U.S. Air Force would "just" launch some "surgical strikes" inside Iran...with no ground forces being required. The U.S. Navy in the Persian Gulf, no doubt, would also participate.

Afterward, of course, all hell would break loose, including the likelihood that the Iranians would retaliate by somehow striking inside the United States, as well as assassinating U.S. citizens wherever they can be found around the world.

And I believe that if the neo-con nuts do expand the present war in Iraq beyond Iraq's borders, then within a short time, the U.S. economy will collapse, probably after Bush declares nationwide martial law following any Iranian suicide-bombing inside the U.S..

The safest course, therefore, for all U.S. citizens is to immediately impeach Bush and Cheney...and hopefully lock them away for a long, long time in an asylum for the criminally insane.

[beamer]

smoke and mirrors....the man isa war crimminal..and is capable of any stinking thing-IMPEACH NOW!!

[banjobailey]

I think P.M. is exactly right. Bush is attempting
to divide the nation. He is 'swift boating" the
nation.
Before a handpicked crowd, he preaches to the
choir, tears the scab off the Viet Nam War, hopes
we will start fighting among ourselves, and sees
himself as winning politically because 70% of us
are united against him.
Classic Bush: divide,divert, and defeat his
enemies: us.

[Mooser]

You guys are just too much!
Here we've got a President who is offering the American people the biggest bargain in history:
Win the War On Iraq (might as well call it by the right name) and we will win the War In Vietnam, too!

It's a two-fer! How can you resist a deal like that?

When you factor in the victory over the protestors and hippies of the Vietnam era, well, it's a three-fer!
Imagine, we'll be able to yell Nah-nah, nah-nah, get a haircut, you freaks! And they won't be able to say nothin'

Why, it's better than shopping at Wal-Mart!

[JB]

"This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it, or their revolutionary right to dismember or overthrow it." -Abraham Lincoln

[John Perry]

A quote from James Madison (4th U.S. President) worth remembering:

"If tyranny and oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy."

For all their bumbling idiocy, the Bush crime family are master propagandists. They have most of America so freaked out about the threat of terrorism ("9/11, 9/11, 9/11, Saddam, Osama, mushroom cloud, Osama, 9/11, Saddam, uranium, 9/11, blah, blah, blah...") that they're looking right past the screamingly obvious: The Bushies are doing the terrorists' work for them, destroying our country for our "protection."

Hello? McFly? Is anybody home?

Take a step out of your homogenized comfort zone, America. Do a little self-imposed homework instead of relying on the pathetically compromised MSM to spoon-feed you your daily dose of insecurity.

Even with the Bush administration war mongering that has only increased the risk of terrorism around the world, you are FAR more likely to die in a car accident than at the hands of a terrorist.

We did indeed lose nearly 3000 souls on 9/11 (and boy, it sure would be nice to have an actual criminal investigation of those nearly 3000 murders someday, wouldn't it?), but we lose more than 40,000 EVERY YEAR in car accidents in this country.

We don't need to give up our creature comforts. We just need to grow the spine to put them aside long enough to exercise our responsibility as citizens and learn what's really happening before it's too late.

[Vanna]

Christ. Who needs credibility when no one stops you from lying like a rug, refusing to obey the law, and giving yourself the power to arrest anyone you want?

[Batguano101]

We the people may have already missed our chance to correct the mess.

I am looking for my medical license and commission.

Perhaps we invade Venezuela after Iran.

I speak Spanish:opportunities abound.

After 5 years as a Ritual Abuse Trauma Monarch target, going to a war looks good by comparison.