Posted 3:51 AM by Paul
The V Word

Vietnam. The historical comparisons are now being made not by crazed crypto commies and "I told you so" liberals but by ex-Republican Presidential candidate John McCain. He was a POW for 5 years and tortured by the Viet Cong, so it will be hard to pass him off as a pacifist. McCain says that although things are not as bad as Nam there is a gap between what the administration is saying is happening and what is actually happening on the ground. The famed Credibility Gap.

In some ways the situation is not as bad as Vietnam. The bombers and snipers are well armed but they are not funded by a competing super power. They have no navy and no airforce - which makes you wonder how they were going to deliver the famed WOMDs targeted on Chipping Sodbury.

However, in some ways the situation is much much worse. The Viet Cong could not call on a constituency of 1 billion co-religionists, some of whom are convinced that a short cut to eternal life is a quick death in a car bomb driving out the infidel from the sacred lands of Iraq.

Bush employed an interesting rhetorical device claiming that the upsurge in murderous violence was due to the success the "coalition" was having . Mmmmm....nice try. UK Foreign Secretary Jack Straw assured us that their were no paralels between Iraq and Vietnam because the "vast majority" of "ordinary Iraqis" supported the coalition forces. Clearly he has set up some focus groups. Or maybe they invited him round for tea. Since the young Jack Straw was a studnet radical opposed to the Vietnam he will be aware that identical claims were made by LBJ and Nixon.

Which reminds me, I am am just re-reading 1984. Anyone for Double Think? Sorry. Got to go. There is someone at the door. It's the Thought Police.