Friday, November 17, 2006

Bush In Hanoi??!!

Perk up your ears...
Do you hear that old Vietnam refrain?
Pssst!! Send more troops. Send more troops! Pssst!

1968: Gen. Earle "Bus" Wheeler asked for 200,000 more troops without any guarantee that they could find the light at the end of the tunnel. Lyndon Johnson finally said "no" and in effect resigned from the presidency.

1983: Remember what Ronald Reagan did when suicide bombers blew up a Marine barracks in Lebanon? He promptly removed the Marines and took full responsibility for the disaster. That's what a buck-stopping CIC does he has produced a fiasco. They don't worry about American credibility or honor. They don't talk about sending in more troops.

When I was in ROTC decades ago, I learned that the responsibilities of command are:
  1. Accomplish the mission
  2. Care for the troops under your command
  3. When and if the mission is deemed no longer attainable, force preservation becomes the primary concern of command.
I have to believe that these principles still hold sway in our Armed Forces, the best military in the world. It's just at the very chickenhawking top of our command structure where these principles were never learned.

More Americans should not be put at risk so that their leaders can try one last foolish attempt to save face.

16 comments:

  1. What is this idiot doing there anyway. Must be scamming something.

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  2. From Rosa Brooks this morning:

    White House functionaries demonstrated their usual respect for diplomatic niceties by illustrating the Web page announcement of Bush's make-nice visit to Vietnam with the flag of the former South Vietnamese government (defunct since 1975, when the South surrendered to the North Vietnamese). Because remember: We can re-invade Vietnam any old time we please!

    The GOP's short-lived humility

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  3. See what I mean?! Bush is the guest in the picture, but he has his hand on the back of his host, which is demeaning rather than friendly. And such times are not for friendliness, anyway, but for ceremony.

    Also, on TV this morning, he plumped himself down on his throne before his host had directed him there. He should have stood until he was invited to be seated. As I recall, he even bounced a little as he sat down. What a rube!! (Or is he crafty enough that such behavior is calculated?)

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  4. Vigilante
    I have been gathering info on his visit for a couple of days and I am getting the full picture and will discuss it tomorow.
    Anyway as you know, Bush has learned absolutely nothing from Vietnam and repeated every mistake. While the so called insurgents have learned everything from Vietnam.
    Anyway listening to Bush's crap while he is over there reflects that he is an idiot!

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  5. littlebill --

    I haven't seen any footage yet -- but I am not surprised in the least of the foibles that you point out.

    Does Bush not have a person in charge of protocol for these visits? Good grief! Hopefully, the citizens of the countries Bush visits understand that the rest of us here in the U.S. (well, most of us, anyway) are NOT a reflection of our idiot king.

    Damn.

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  6. You are just a bunch of "nagging nabobs of negativism"! Instead of seeing the positives, your lefist instincts focus your attention into some minor imperfections. As I see it, president Bush showed remarkable improvement over his German visit when he tried to hump Ankela Merkel in the plain view of the TV audiences all over the world. I mean, give a credit when it's due!

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  7. Y'all see wherein Pekka derives his reputation. As sniper, this man is a proven marksman. Just be glad (or be hopeful) he's on your side!

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  8. Can`t blame Bush for wanting to hump Merkel. She has that German thing going, which can be attractive. She obviously enjoyed it when Bush was rubbing up against here.
    Her face took on a very expansive look and Bush probably was sublimating his feelings for Condi. His expression also was tender.
    Then they both plotted killing and exploiting some more people no doubt.
    I thought the Germans had some rule about consorting with war crimes people.?

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  9. Skip,

    They do! A group of lawyers have already banded together to bring Rumsfeld to the war crimes court in Germany.

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  10. Yes, Indeed thats right.~!~

    Perhaps they will end up indicting Bush also. ?
    The Germans relate to that- just following orders thing, from past experiences , right.?

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  11. Bush may have been making conciliatory remarks in the aftermath of his electoral "thumping," but as long as he continues to insist that Democrats must work with him to achieve his oft-stated goals in Iraq, he is due for more disappointment. His central problem — one that has eluded everyone in his neocon sphere of influence — is that there is no more hope for finding a "victory" in Iraq than there was for finding weapons of mass destruction. In both cases, his initial premise was flawed, and no amount of moving the goal posts will hide the fact that this was a defeat from the moment Bush decided that Iraq should be invaded.

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  12. 40 years too late, and that was the "best" part of his trip until he got to Indonesia. Protests and 6 hours later he was on his way back home.

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  13. There seems to be a growing consensus that we need to Vietnamize — excuse me, "Iraqize" — the Iraq war as our means of getting out. That this self-responsibility is always the solution ought to be food for thought about any justification for invasion.

    Vietnam is better off simply by not being at war. Is Iraq better off without Saddam Hussein?

    It looks like insurgents plus militia and a few foreign fighters are killing more Iraqis annually than Hussein ever did.

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  14. The lesson from Vietnam is:
    If you put your hand on a hot oven, you only lose if you take your hand off the hot oven.

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