Posted on 12/20/2011 4:09:34 PM PST by Starman417
Iraq will become Barack Obama’s Vietnam. Not in the boogieman sense that the left has been using the Vietnam War for the last 40 years where every American use of force is the “next Vietnam” but rather in its aftermath.
The Vietnam War ostensibly ended in ended in early 1973 with the signing of the Paris Peace Accords. The agreement was based upon an agreement by all sides to stop hostile activities and for American troops to depart. The Americans would continue to supply the South Vietnamese military. In addition, the SVN leadership was explicitly assured that were the North Vietnamese to resume hostilities the United States would begin bombing Hanoi and other targets in the North.
Unfortunately for the South Vietnamese, the promises of arms and support were mirages. In 1974 Congress cut military aid to Vietnam from $2.3 billion to $1 billion and then in 1975 to $300 million. Thanks to the Democrat’s Case-Church Amendment, when the North had resupplied and resumed hostilities, the promised US bombing never came. In April 1975 Saigon fell and the South surrendered.
Then came the nightmare. Upwards of a million South Vietnamese found themselves in prisons, “re-education camps” or other tropical outposts where they were treated to starvation, torture and murder. Hundreds of thousands more braved the oceans in order to escape, a quarter of them never reaching shore. The effects of this nightmare reached into Cambodia and Laos as well.
And now there is Iraq.
The war in Iraq was obviously far different from the one in Vietnam. Unfortunately however, the aftermath may be similarly unpleasant.
While Iran will not invade Iraq anytime soon, the country could still become a vassal of the ayatollahs. If Iraq escapes that fate it may well collapse into a civil war that eventually draws not only the involvement of the Iranians, but of the Saudis, the Turks and other neighbors as well. Oh, and, yes, perhaps eventually the Americans again.
However one feels about the war in Iraq in the first place, the manner of the exit ensures one thing, that the American blood and treasure spent toppling Saddam Hussein and seeking to establish a viable democracy in the Middle East will likely be for naught.
Not that Saddam Hussein will be coming back anytime soon, he won’t… but the country he once ruled will likely become a basket case or a failed state.
(Excerpt) Read more at floppingaces.net...
I was in Vietnam in 2004. It is a great place. Can’t we use another example. I was surprised at how the people were very nice to American tourists. There has to be other countries that we could use that would make Obama look bad than Vietnam which is a peaceful country. Sometimes people don’t think.
To do that would be to ignore the historical reality of that period. Yes, Vietnam is now a nice place, repeat NOW, but the purges, death camps, and boat people were real enough.
And it’s still a hardline Communist state under the flowers and palm fronds — although, like China, the government now allows private business and more personal freedoms. Ask practicing Catholics what their lives are like, and you get a different story.
I have not read the posted article yet but I'd expect it is about Washington, D.C. not South VN -- that's were the problem was/is.
BTW, Obama is the ideological/biological child of the Marxists, et al. that caused the problems back then.
I know but over half of the voting population know zero about Vietnam. The Vietnam vets are getting long in the tooth and we need to use an example that will ensure that everyone can relate to the country or conflict.
In a real sense you are proof that the FA article is true but meaningless.
We knew in '73 that the US had abandoned RVN. We knew what kind of a hell was in store for the average southerner.
Unfortunately, the left and those calling the shots in DC were just as committed to failure (of a war they refused any responsibility for) as those same blocs are today.
Unfortunately, a whole lot of us with time invested were busy looking for work in a sour job market (much like today) - and no one was listening anyway.
So, yes, Iraq will be Obama's Vietnam; but he does not care, his supporters are probably giddy, and in five years time damn few will know or care.
If the Iraqis could not establish a secure nation with eight years and a trillion American tax dollars, they would not be able to establish a secure nation in eighty years and eighty trillion American tax dollars.
If the Iraqis could not establish a secure nation with eight years and a trillion American tax dollars, they would not be able to establish a secure nation in eighty years and eighty trillion American tax dollars.
HEY! I ain’t gettin’ long in the tooth! I don’t have any!
I agree with you. Twice in fact!
You’re right! I live in San Jose with the the second largest Vietnamese population in the US. I have heard horror stories firsthand, as well as sad tales from friends who escaped Laos and Cambodia. I went to a ceremony to mark the fall of Saigon and heard a heart-wrenching tale from Lt. General Lam who went from being a powerful Vietnamese officer to a poor refugee in the US. He lamented about “waiting for the US to help us like they agreed to.” That was the only time I Have ever apologized for my country. I told him my Dad was a Vietnam Vet and I’m a Desert Storm Vet, but I’m also a student of history. I apologized about the shameful betrayal of the Democrats In congress that ignored our obligation to protect South Vietnam if the North violated the peace accords. I was close to tears as I told him they have the blood of millions on their hands.
You’re right! I live in San Jose with the the second largest Vietnamese population in the US. I have heard horror stories firsthand, as well as sad tales from friends who escaped Laos and Cambodia. I went to a ceremony to mark the fall of Saigon and heard a heart-wrenching tale from Lt. General Lam who went from being a powerful Vietnamese officer to a poor refugee in the US. He lamented about “waiting for the US to help us like they agreed to.” That was the only time I Have ever apologized for my country. I told him my Dad was a Vietnam Vet and I’m a Desert Storm Vet, but I’m also a student of history. I apologized about the shameful betrayal of the Democrats In congress that ignored our obligation to protect South Vietnam if the North violated the peace accords. I was close to tears as I told him they have the blood of millions on their hands.
You’re right! I live in San Jose with the the second largest Vietnamese population in the US. I have heard horror stories firsthand, as well as sad tales from friends who escaped Laos and Cambodia. I went to a ceremony to mark the fall of Saigon and heard a heart-wrenching tale from Lt. General Lam who went from being a powerful Vietnamese officer to a poor refugee in the US. He lamented about “waiting for the US to help us like they agreed to.” That was the only time I Have ever apologized for my country. I told him my Dad was a Vietnam Vet and I’m a Desert Storm Vet, but I’m also a student of history. I apologized about the shameful betrayal of the Democrats In congress that ignored our obligation to protect South Vietnam if the North violated the peace accords. I was close to tears as I told him they have the blood of millions on their hands.
Iraq will become Barack Obama's Vietnam. Not in the boogieman sense that the left has been using the Vietnam War for the last 40 years... but rather in its aftermath... the Paris Peace Accords... was based upon an agreement by all sides to stop hostile activities and for American troops to depart. The Americans would continue to supply the South Vietnamese military. In addition, the SVN leadership was explicitly assured that were the North Vietnamese to resume hostilities the United States would begin bombing Hanoi and other targets in the North. Unfortunately for the South Vietnamese, the promises of arms and support were mirages.Thanks Starman417.
Huh? Is today's Vietnam a communist country? YES. Are the people of today's Vietnam, aside from the party apparatchiks, allowed any civil liberties? NO. How is today's Vietnam's economy and standard of living? VERY POOR.
Seems as if you fell for the propaganda that your Vietnamese hosts fed you. It's reminiscent historically of how American and western European intellectuals were brainwashed when they toured the Soviet Union as far back as the 1920s. They came back with glowing reports about a new Utopian society. Just like today's Vietnam, the tourist's experience was very much restricted by the regime. And so were the natives in what they were permitted to tell the tourists, under threat of being sent to a gulag.
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