Bush Deploys to Vietnam 34 Years After He Ducked Service

[bigtree]

Wed, Nov. 15, 2006

Bush Vietnam trip revives Iraq 'quagmire'

JENNIFER LOVEN
Associated Press
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/politic...

WASHINGTON - President Bush's recent acknowledgment that the war in Iraq was comparable to the Viet Cong's psychologically devastating Tet Offensive in 1968 was hardly the first time a parallel has been drawn between the Iraq and Vietnam conflicts.

Questions about a "quagmire" have haunted the president's Iraq policy since before a single bomb fell on Baghdad.

But this week, amid an intensifying discussion at home about the future of the war, Bush gives the comparison debate another kick by walking among Vietnam War relics on a four-day visit to the communist nation created after American troops departed 33 years ago.

But there will be no mistaking the reminders of the country's wartime past and the U.S. military's troubled history there.

Bush's official itinerary includes a tour of the Joint POW-MIA Accounting Command, where he will be briefed on efforts to locate or account for all of the nearly 1,800 service members still missing from the Vietnam War theater. On view there are rusted remnants of machine guns unearthed during searches, maps of excavation sites and the destroyed instrument panel of a downed U.S. helicopter.

more: http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/politics/16016242.htm



Bush's chickenhawk heart must be just pounding with fear . . . I wonder if he'll wear his flight suit?


http://journals.democraticunderground.com/bigtree

[livetohike]

1. His going to Viet Nam now dishonors the memory of all those

who gave up their lives in that country. He can't even find it on a map.

Stumbling, bumbling idiot boy.

[radfringe]

2. heh-heh...sniggel..chortle... not much difference

this time he's just lame ducking it

[William769]

3. Better late than never.

Oh wait, he wasn't going to go till he had an army to back his ass up!

[acmejack]

4. You beat me to it!

Exactly what I had in mind! I guess he can now say he served his Country in Vietnam...

on edit, more importantly, at least he shamelessly will.

[bigtree]

5. I can see it now

Bush's Air Force One helicopter hovering above the Saigon Hotel while Bush and his White House warriors descend from the rope ladder onto the top of the building, reversing the famous images of the last exit during the fall of Saigon.

[William769]

6. Don't forget the mission accomplished banner!