Thursday, October 19, 2006

The Light Bulb Flickers, Then Shuts Off

Leave it to Dubya to misinterpret history once again.

In this story, he compares the violence in Iraq now to the Tet Offensive, which marked a turning point in the Vietnam War. Were it not for the loss of life involved in all of this, Dubya’s remarks would truly be laughable (though as I’ve said, since he signed the torture bill, I’m not inclined to find anything about this blight of an administration humorous any more).

As explained in this link, the Tet Offensive was actually a military victory for our forces. We repelled the North Vietnamese and depleted half of their troop strength, and they were unable to mount a similar attack against us for two years afterwards.

The problem is that the Tet Offensive was more of a PR victory for the North Vietnamese because it brought the war into the city of Hue in front of a greater U.S. TV audience and showed that they were able to mount a massive assault against us, which we didn’t think was possible up to that point. As the story also states, it gave a new impetus to questioning President Lyndon Johnson’s conduct of the war.

In Tet, our forces were victorious and repelled the enemy for a significant period. In Iraq, our forces are faced with a continual struggle to survive in which victory is measured by the fact that you’re still breathing at the end of the day.

(God, I can’t wait for November 7th, and anyone reading this should feel the same way – the time to get rid of this fool was November 2004, but with hopes of a Democratic congressional victory, we can try to do it again one day.)

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Nixon told Elvis: "I'm just a figurehead here."

Musta been fact; do you think the Real Power/Unseen Hand would allow a dunce such as Geo. W. Butcher to be "The Decider"?

Of course not.

doomsy said...

Yep, I would say that the last six years are proof positive of that - thanks.