Criminals in the White House
Thomas A. Hutchings
Saigon – Living in a different country provides a different perspective on what was once called a homeland. It is disheartening to consider what is happening in the United States and the public’s refusal to force criminal charges against the Bush administration; an administration that has hijacked the government of the US by George W. Bush, Dick Cheney and Karl Rove. The Bush administration is completely ignorant of history and is repeating it with a war that is unethical, immoral and illegal.
There are very strong parallels that Bush is ignoring; striking similarities between the American War in Viet Nam and the American War in Iraq.
Polls Repeat History
It’s interesting to note that Bush’s polls leading into the American War in Iraq is similar to Democratic President Lyndon Johnson’s polls in 1965 shortly after Operation Rolling Thunder, the devastating bombing of Hanoi, began. The polls showed Johnson’s approval rating of 70 percent and an 80 percent approval of U.S. military involvement in Viet Nam. Similar to Bush’s polls at the start of the war in Iraq.
When US diplomats urged restraint leading up to the involvement in Iraq, Bush ignored all pleas to wait. Questions were raised about the administration’s claims of weapons of mass destruction and it was eventually discovered that the shifting rationale for invading Iraq at Bush’s behest were fabricated. That is a High Crime!
The United States public, being led down the primrose path by a cowardly press, didn’t question Bush. A strategic plan for withdrawal was never formulated and even now, Bush claims that to discuss a plan would provide information to terrorists to use against the US. Bush has dragged the US into a quagmire, another lesson not understood from Viet Nam.
History Repeats Itself
In early 1965, Ambassador Taylor in Viet Nam presented his grave reservations to Johnson. Taylor indicated that America was about to repeat the same mistake the French made by sending increasing numbers of troops into the jungles and forests of Southeast Asia where friend and foe are “indistinguishable.”
Worldwide protests were ignored by Bush, reasoning that he would not yield to the opinion of “focus groups.” He is still completely ignorant of the gravity of the war he feloniously entered and instead is more focused on approval ratings. He is now trying to save his sinking Ship of Fools, torpedoed by the recent withdrawal of Bush’s legal counsel, Harriet Miers, from her nomination to the Supreme Court, the indictment of I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, Cheney’s Chief of Staff and the continuing investigation of Karl Rove who is currently spared and his more recent failures in developing a free trade agreement for the Americas.
Oh, let’s not forget the failure to respond to Hurricane Katrina in a timely manner, though he’s quick to help his brother’s state of Florida when a dying girl is in a coma or weigh in on the Christian instigated “Intelligent Design” vote in Kansas on November 8, 2005.
Speaking To Improve Poll Rankings
Instead, Bush travels the countryside speaking to specific friendly groups and using the same hackneyed phrases he used to enter the war; phrases like rogue nations, weapons of mass destruction, democracy is imminent, war on terrorism, and the list goes on. From here, Bush sounds more like a broken record than the leader of a nation.
Despite current polls showing declining support for the Bush War in Iraq, he still urges the country to stand firm against the enemy. During Johnson’s administration, columnist Walter Lippmann blasted Johnson’s Viet Nam policies and wrote, “Gestures, propaganda, public relations and bombing and more bombing will not work.” Forty years later, the American public and press are beginning to repeat what Lippmann and others wrote.
Bush’s criticism, echoed by the brainless right wing conservatives who will continue to polish the brass on Bush’s sinking ship of state, of those opposed to the war sound very similar to Johnson’s comments. Regarding protesters opposed to the war in Viet Nam, Johnson, used the media to deride opponents and war protesters and his critics in Congress as “nervous Nellies” and “Sunshine Patriots.”
Viet Nam: Four Times All Bombs Dropped In WWII
During the entire American War in Viet Nam, the US flew 3 million combat missions and dropped 8 million tons of bombs. This amount is four times the amount of tonnage dropped during World War II. All that for a country the size of California and which then Secretary General of the United Nations expressed his doubts that Viet Nam was essential to the security of the West. Many believe that the war in Iraq is simply corporate America’s war to ensure a continued oil supply to the US’s insatiable consumption economy.
Secretary of Defense Robert MacNamara, the architect of the War in Viet Nam eventually had the courage to announce that the entire war was a terrible mistake.
The President Spoke Of Madness
I doubt Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice and the other sycophants of the jingoistic corporate right will ever admit the mistake of Iraq.
On January 12, 1966, in his State of the Union address, President Johnson spoke about the war in Viet Nam. He stated, "Yet, finally, war is always the same. It is young men dying in the fullness of their promise. It is trying to kill a man that you do not even know well enough to hate...therefore, to know war is to know that there is still madness in this world."
The “Madness” continues to this day in America’s discolored and stained White House.
Saigon – Living in a different country provides a different perspective on what was once called a homeland. It is disheartening to consider what is happening in the United States and the public’s refusal to force criminal charges against the Bush administration; an administration that has hijacked the government of the US by George W. Bush, Dick Cheney and Karl Rove. The Bush administration is completely ignorant of history and is repeating it with a war that is unethical, immoral and illegal.
There are very strong parallels that Bush is ignoring; striking similarities between the American War in Viet Nam and the American War in Iraq.
Polls Repeat History
It’s interesting to note that Bush’s polls leading into the American War in Iraq is similar to Democratic President Lyndon Johnson’s polls in 1965 shortly after Operation Rolling Thunder, the devastating bombing of Hanoi, began. The polls showed Johnson’s approval rating of 70 percent and an 80 percent approval of U.S. military involvement in Viet Nam. Similar to Bush’s polls at the start of the war in Iraq.
When US diplomats urged restraint leading up to the involvement in Iraq, Bush ignored all pleas to wait. Questions were raised about the administration’s claims of weapons of mass destruction and it was eventually discovered that the shifting rationale for invading Iraq at Bush’s behest were fabricated. That is a High Crime!
The United States public, being led down the primrose path by a cowardly press, didn’t question Bush. A strategic plan for withdrawal was never formulated and even now, Bush claims that to discuss a plan would provide information to terrorists to use against the US. Bush has dragged the US into a quagmire, another lesson not understood from Viet Nam.
History Repeats Itself
In early 1965, Ambassador Taylor in Viet Nam presented his grave reservations to Johnson. Taylor indicated that America was about to repeat the same mistake the French made by sending increasing numbers of troops into the jungles and forests of Southeast Asia where friend and foe are “indistinguishable.”
Worldwide protests were ignored by Bush, reasoning that he would not yield to the opinion of “focus groups.” He is still completely ignorant of the gravity of the war he feloniously entered and instead is more focused on approval ratings. He is now trying to save his sinking Ship of Fools, torpedoed by the recent withdrawal of Bush’s legal counsel, Harriet Miers, from her nomination to the Supreme Court, the indictment of I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, Cheney’s Chief of Staff and the continuing investigation of Karl Rove who is currently spared and his more recent failures in developing a free trade agreement for the Americas.
Oh, let’s not forget the failure to respond to Hurricane Katrina in a timely manner, though he’s quick to help his brother’s state of Florida when a dying girl is in a coma or weigh in on the Christian instigated “Intelligent Design” vote in Kansas on November 8, 2005.
Speaking To Improve Poll Rankings
Instead, Bush travels the countryside speaking to specific friendly groups and using the same hackneyed phrases he used to enter the war; phrases like rogue nations, weapons of mass destruction, democracy is imminent, war on terrorism, and the list goes on. From here, Bush sounds more like a broken record than the leader of a nation.
Despite current polls showing declining support for the Bush War in Iraq, he still urges the country to stand firm against the enemy. During Johnson’s administration, columnist Walter Lippmann blasted Johnson’s Viet Nam policies and wrote, “Gestures, propaganda, public relations and bombing and more bombing will not work.” Forty years later, the American public and press are beginning to repeat what Lippmann and others wrote.
Bush’s criticism, echoed by the brainless right wing conservatives who will continue to polish the brass on Bush’s sinking ship of state, of those opposed to the war sound very similar to Johnson’s comments. Regarding protesters opposed to the war in Viet Nam, Johnson, used the media to deride opponents and war protesters and his critics in Congress as “nervous Nellies” and “Sunshine Patriots.”
Viet Nam: Four Times All Bombs Dropped In WWII
During the entire American War in Viet Nam, the US flew 3 million combat missions and dropped 8 million tons of bombs. This amount is four times the amount of tonnage dropped during World War II. All that for a country the size of California and which then Secretary General of the United Nations expressed his doubts that Viet Nam was essential to the security of the West. Many believe that the war in Iraq is simply corporate America’s war to ensure a continued oil supply to the US’s insatiable consumption economy.
Secretary of Defense Robert MacNamara, the architect of the War in Viet Nam eventually had the courage to announce that the entire war was a terrible mistake.
The President Spoke Of Madness
I doubt Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice and the other sycophants of the jingoistic corporate right will ever admit the mistake of Iraq.
On January 12, 1966, in his State of the Union address, President Johnson spoke about the war in Viet Nam. He stated, "Yet, finally, war is always the same. It is young men dying in the fullness of their promise. It is trying to kill a man that you do not even know well enough to hate...therefore, to know war is to know that there is still madness in this world."
The “Madness” continues to this day in America’s discolored and stained White House.
posted by thomashutchings at 1:24 AM
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