Bush says Iraq like Vietnam???

In an interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos, President George W. Bush was asked whether or not a Tom Friedman column in the New York Times comparing the current situation in Iraq with the Tet Offensive in Vietnam in 1968 was accurate. Bush responded that the writer could be right, because of the increased violence and the fact that we're heading into an election.

So, naturally they screamed the headline: "Bush Accepts Iraq-Vietnam Comparison.” Holy Quagmires Batman!!! Bush has admitted Iraq is like Vietnam! We're surely doomed for good now.

Hold on a second…there was more to what the President said.

“My gut tells me that they have all along been trying to inflict enough damage that we'd leave," Bush said. "And the leaders of al Qaeda have made that very clear. Look, here's how I view it. First of all, al Qaeda is still very active in Iraq. They are dangerous. They are lethal. They are trying to not only kill American troops, but they're trying to foment sectarian violence. They believe that if they can create enough chaos, the American people will grow sick and tired of the Iraqi effort and will cause our government to withdraw."

So basically all we have here is Bush agreed to a comparison of the Tet Offensive to the insurgency, and that's where the comparison ends. By the way, did you know that the Tet Offensive was successful and the United States won? It was only after the anti-war mainstream media stepped in was it called a defeat. Just a small detail.

Read my column from the archives Will Iraq be my generations Vietnam.

At any rate, other than how the news media has been able to sway public opinion on Iraq and turn them against the war, Iraq is nothing like Vietnam. Never was, never will be.

In fact from a military stand point Iraq and Vietnam couldn't be more different. For starters we defeated the Iraqi Army and Saddam Hussein. Now we're trying to go the extra step of helping Iraqis form a representative government. The only problem at the moment is keeping the peace...and trying to kill as many terrorists as possible. Nothing like the situation in Vietnam was. In Vietnam we never overthrew the communist regime.

Then when you compare both the length of the war and the casualties, once again there are no similarities. We've been in Iraq not even 4 years, while we were in Vietnam for 20 years.** The casualty rate in Iraq, while too high, isn't a tenth of what we lost in Vietnam. (58,148)

Of course none of this matters. All that matters is now the Bush-hating media will be pushing its Vietnam-Iraq template hard and heavy especially now the democrats are in the majority.

**Officially the war lasted 11 years, however the first troops were sent as advisers to train the South Vietnamese in 1955 and the first American Soldier was killed July 8, 1959. The last American Soldier was killed in Vietnam on April 29, 1975 the same day the official U.S. presence ended as the last Americans were rescued by helicopter from the roof top of the US Embassy.