Not only do Americans support the action in Afghanistan, but much of the rest of the world does as well.
Tet was indeed a propoganda failure. It was a propoganda failure in that the american optimism (pushed and supported by LBJ and the Pentagon) prior to Tet was shown to be suspect. This widened the credibility gap and made the outcome of Tet irrelevant. The trust had been broken, and the american public no longer was willing to sacrifice sons and daughters for a war with little tangible benefit. Hmmmm. Now what current war does the above seem fitting for? I wonder...
the ironic thing is that basso is always the first one of jump on others if they compare iraq to vietnam, but he has no problem starting threads that do the very same thing. why the double standard basso?
Thanks for mentioning the 2 m dead Cambodians caused by the US prolonging the Vietnam War for Independence. Another reason why it would have been better if we had withdrawn earlier.
Iraq= apples Viet Nam= oranges There is no super power support for the guerrilla's in Iraq unless you consider Iran in the same context as Red China and The Soviet Union. I don't see any Iranians flying MIG's for Al Qaeda. There is no looming nuclear power reigning in our military effort in Iraq. There aren't 500,000 Americans in Iraq and of the 130,000 or so that are there, 0 are reluctant conscripts. I don't think anyone ever thought that Viet Nam was winnable with the possible exception of General Westmorland. We could win all the military confrontations but we could never sustain the effort indefinitely against an enemy that could sustain their effort indefinitely. Peasents reproduce quickly and die quietly at the behest of a totalitarian leadership. And their supply lines only ran a short distance overland to an untouchable giant of a billion people. Overthrowing murderous tyrants is a worthy endeavor. Establishing a democracy in the midst of the Middle East could be a worthy endeavor. But the US should never have done it unilaterally and the execution of the hard work after the military campaign appears incompetant, starting with the total dismatling of the existing civil structure which left no option but to build upwards from chaos.
A fine post. Bush's most ardent supporters will dismiss it, since it is on target, but worth your effort. Impeach Bush.
Tax revenues historically rise no matter what. Just because two things happen at the same time does not prove causation.
Good post. basso misses the point of Tet... they were able to mount a significant offensive. It showed the lies of the administration for what they were.
No, it didn't raise tax revenues. This has been demonstrated time and time again. Repeating the falsity over and over won't change that. Even supply side economists no longer try to argue that tax cuts pay for themselves.
