Cheney reveals what it's all about: Refighting the Vietnam war

[subterranean]

http://consortiumnews.com/2007/041607.html

On April 13, in a speech to the Heritage Foundation, Vice President Cheney took an even tougher line calling the Democratic-backed war funding bill “irresponsible” and dressing down the Democratic congressional leadership in especially harsh terms.

“Although the current political environment in our country carries echoes of the hard left in the early ‘70s, America will not again play out those old scenes of abandonment, and retreat, and regret,” Cheney said. “Not this time, not on our watch. … We will press on in this mission, and we will turn events towards victory.”

I think Cheney and the other chickenhawks have never gotten over the Vietnam war. They believe that if only we'd stayed in Vietnam longer, bombed it more ruthlessly, and not "lost our resolve," we would have won. They view Iraq as a chance to "redo" that war and restore America's pride. Of course, most people who think that way, like Cheney, never stepped foot in Vietnam.

[damntexdem]

1. The worst and the dumbest.

[valerief]

2. Oh, yes, we want to listen to Mr. Five Deferments. Duh! nt

[Old and In the Way]

3. It amazes me that he has the audacity to even mention VietNam.

The war that he got 5 deferments to avoid. He ought to be ashamed....but there's a lot of money to be made and Dick is a world-class war profiteer.

[blm]

10. Their audacity comes from knowing they control most mainstream newsmedia outlets.

Owning most media gives chickenhawks like Cheney PLENTY of faux courage.

[Fresh_Start]

4. Hey Dick, you did abandon the Vietnamese and the

Americans who served and died in Vietnam.

Remember you had other prioritis.

[katty]

5. cheney is a real dumb,f***-always has been, now he's rich

[MAGICBULLET]

6. ok dick

keep bombing and build more prisons, that is what you consider victory

[whistle]

7. Spoken like the true believer idiot fascist that he is! What a bastard

....covering his own guilt about saving his sorry ass with the five deferments he used to get out of his obligation to serve and fight during the Vietnam War. Cheney's phony rhetoric no longer holds water except with other phony chickenhawks :wtf:

[jwirr]

8. Not on his watch? That would be easy to fix. Either *ss and him

could just pack up and get out or we could impeach them.

[Deja Q]

9. I don't agree with your claim they got over the Vietnam war.

After all, why would amongst other people, President Bush go over there to sell to the Vietnamese jobs and improve their economy?

"Hi enemy. It's us again! This time we'll give you jobs, not bombs!" Doesn't sound right.

Besides, with what you say, if they aren't "over" Vietnam, why aren't they dropping bombs on it rather than Iraq?

I don't think Vietnam is the issue and I think they're over the past.

[subterranean]

14. What I meant was our *defeat* in the Vietnam war

Not Vietnam per se. The lesson they learned was that we only lost that war because we lost our resolve to win (not because the war was unwinnable). They are applying that lesson to the Iraq war now, which is why they constantly talk about the need to "maintain our resolve."

[MasonJar]

11. How often do the press call him on it? Or have they ever?

[Solly Mack]

12. They've all read Lewis Sorley's "A Better War"

Petraeus based a paper he wrote on the conclusions in the book as well....and he co-authored a field manual on the same thinking

http://www.answers.com/topic/david-petraeus

And they all believe American changed for the worse during and after Vietnam ("hippies",anti-war protests, those Leave it to Beaver & Donna Reed days - that never really existed - all gone)

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/03/20/opinion/main2587372.shtml

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/03/AR2005110301971.html

I've mentioned this a time or 12 on DU before

[Alexander]

13. Kellogg, Brown and Root, which made $$ from Vietnam, is now Halliburton.

Small wonder he wants to re-enact the war.

[madrchsod]

15. who cares what he has to say?

he`s finding out just what out of power means,hell even the Mormons do`t want his sorry ass. he`ll be remembered as the vice president of one of the worse presidencies in our history. nice legacy dick

[DemoTex]

16. Viet Nam was fucked up without Cheney and Bu$h.

Iraq is fucked up with Cheney and Bu$h. What is Dick's point?


Check Six, MoFo!

[MadMaddie]

17. Apparantly 50,000 + lives was not enough for this crimanl

He believes we should have stayed in Vietnam so the US casualty rate could have been higher.

[SpiralHawk]

18. Commander AWOL & Chickenhawk Cheney

What a pair. I wouldn't follow them to a free lunch, never mind a war (which neither knows anything about, other than the dimension of Profiteering from munitions and oil).

[Doctor_J]

19. Um, he didn't fight the Viet Nam war

mainly because he is a craven coward who is afraid to face hard questions, let alone hostile machine gun fire. the people are onto you Dick. All of your long-range bloviating and name-calling are doing nothing but pushing your approval rating down toward your blood alcohol level.

[sce56]

20. He should be made to watch the deleted scene from "We Were Soldiers" Where in an interview

A must-see movie on DVD if not for one of the deleted scenes where Mel Gibson's character (Lt. Col. Hal Moore) is talking to Westmoreland and McNamara after the engagement. McNamara and Westmoreland were congradulating Lt. Col. Moore about his unit's performance during the battle. Lt. Col. Moore reads to them a letter taken off the body of a fallen NVA soldier to his sweetheart back home. The letter states that they were there, fighting and suffering, to protect their country from the invading forces. Lt. Col. Moore tells McNamara and Westmoreland that if the North Vietnamese are motivated enough to leave their families and loved ones behind to suffer and fight the US forces in South Vietnam, they will never be able to defeat the North Vietnamese. More prophetic words were never spoken.
http://web.archive.org/web/20021013181055/

[dansolo]

21. Even if we won in Vietnam

What difference would it have made in the geopolitical scene? I'd say not much. The reason that Vietnam is such a sore point with Republicans is because it removed the aura of invincibility surrounding the United States. They need this image as a security blanket, sort of like "my daddy can beat up your daddy", but on a much larger scale.