President Bush to Our Veterans: Iraq is Like Vietnam

Today, President Bush addressed the Veterans of Foreign Wars National Convention in Kansas City. Instead of taking the opportunity to discuss the urgent issues that are facing veterans today, the president offered a history lesson -- and actually compared Iraq to Vietnam. But the last thing these veterans needed was a lecture from such a poor student of history. They remember America's wars -- because, unlike President Bush, they actually fought in them.

President Bush telling veterans about war is like an atheist preaching to the choir. No surprise that he got his facts wrong. But plenty of others are making great arguments about the historical accuracy of Bush's remarks and their relevance to today's conflicts. I am more frustrated by what Bush did not say.

I have often admonished the president for not addressing veterans' issues. This speech today represents a new low. After taking credit for increasing the veterans' budget, even after years of underfunding the VA, the president was strangely silent on the real issues facing new veterans, including naming a replacement for Veterans Affairs Secretary Jim Nicholson who steps down in October, and implementing recommendations of the Dole-Shalala Commission to fix the nation's military and veterans' hospitals. What happened to all the outrage and promises after Walter Reed? The words "Dole-Shalala" were not even mentioned. The Dole-Shalala Commission's Report set out six clear recommendations to be implemented (most by the president), and now they are gathering dust on a shelf somewhere while the president and Congress are on vacation for the summer.

So if we're going to talk about the legacy of Vietnam, we need to remember what happens when a nation fails to take care of its veterans. We cannot abandon another generation of combat vets to untreated mental health problems, substance abuse, unemployment, homelessness, and suicide. As President Bush said today, "History does remind us that there are lessons applicable to our time. And we can learn something from history." Let us learn that the men and women who have fought in Iraq, Afghanistan, (and all wars) deserve to be provided for. Not just used as a backdrop for another presidential photo op.

Follow Paul Rieckhoff on Twitter: www.twitter.com/PaulRieckhoff

Comments

[NoFactsJustTruth]

01:45 AM on 08/26/2007

Paul, I wish I could feel that things will change greatly when the preznutz has left office. I have my suspicions that the desire for another nations' natural resources has overcome both sides of the isle, and little will change in the pursuit of the Iraqi oil contracts, regardless of troop strength or who holds office.

For many of us that have served this nation, it's been a torturous nightmare watching the OUR Constituti­on and OUR military both torn up, in conflict with OATHS TAKEN, in a few short years. The teatment of OUR soldiers returning from OUR request of them to give ALL, has so far been nothig short of shameful.

Let's hope the universe soon finds a path to an equilibriu­m for ALL the current lives and livelihood­s being destroyed - by what we may find out in the end was the lowest possible of motives, and one usually labeled criminal,.­..greed.

[Spookcatcher]

04:29 AM on 08/27/2007

Amen, Brother. But I am not going to hold my hands on my ass or over my ears when the tanks, and swarms of Blackwater wannabees traitorous scum come whistling dixie down my street. Remember the Alamo was Bullshit, more like Boston Tea Party for me, start this Party over again with feeling, for everybody, this time.!

[NotMyPrez]

11:14 AM on 08/24/2007

Wasn't there a big brouhaha about government people writing checks they couldn't cash in the 90's? Bush's reality check has been bouncing like a rubber ball.

[oafishcad]

07:45 PM on 08/23/2007

If we could just find those darn elusive WMDs, we could leave.

[Qbear]

07:36 PM on 08/23/2007

I only wish Iraq was as simple as Viet Nam, cuz then we could just get Kissinger to secretly surrender to China with a deal to let us get our troops out, and they can do ANYTHING they want after we leave. Viet Nam wasn't globally strategic for the USA, and it didn't have an energy source we need to survive. Bush really screwed the pooch by going into a war where we can't win and REALLY can't lose. Generation­s will pay for this disaster of Cheney/Bus­h.

[Qbear]

07:30 PM on 08/23/2007

Bush says "Iraq is like Viet Nam....I imagine."

[paulrieckhoff]

04:14 PM on 08/23/2007

Thanks again for all the support--e­specially the comments about the Hardball interview last night with Ari Fleischer. Here is a clip from the show:

http://thi­nkprogress­.org/2007/­08/22/flei­scher-riec­khoff/

[KeysDan]

02:45 PM on 08/23/2007

Paul, Your post was much appreciate­d as was your presentati­on last night on Hardball. Without your response, Ari Fleischer (He's back) would have been able to get away with his lies, unscathed. With regard to the treatment of veterans, you need to factor in the Bush neocon philosophy of soldiers as learned at the knee of their mentor, Richard Nixon. During a national television interview, Nixon stated (in response to the interviewe­rs concerns of casualties­) that "soldiers are expendable­" and should not be a part of a policy calculus. His heirs (Cheney, Rummy, Wolfie, and their sock puppet, W) appear to be following the Nixon play book, witness the surfacing of long pent up hostilitie­s of Viet Nam and Watergate. Also, get over the purported reason of the surge being to provide opportunit­y for a political solution..­. the surge is for a military solution so that a political one (especiall­y one we do not like) is not needed. This may take, 50,000 casualties­, and a permanet presence. Remember, the US. Embassy in Iraq is bigger than the Vatican. All of this does not seem to be for a short term occupation­.

[marinemomof3]

02:39 PM on 08/23/2007

"I think the analogy is false. I also happen to think that analogy sends the wrong message to our troops, and sends the wrong message to the enemy." April 2004

FLIP FLOP FOR POLITICAL GAIN?

[krocklin]

01:25 PM on 08/23/2007

Paul Rieckhoff and Jon Stolz from a veteran organizati­on against the war, are the most articulate­, determined­, no-nonsens­e and focussed war critics that make it on to the tube fairly regularly.
Of course they are being attacked as a result, but what a relief to see the media at giving these two guys a voice.
Joan Walsh also gets my respect for performing what is always a circus act in our media, and yet maintainin­g a steady perspectiv­e not tainted by journalist­ic ambition, as with many of the other bush critics on tv.

[GoodDay]

01:22 PM on 08/23/2007

George W Bush was being uncharacte­ristically honest in likening the Iraq War to the Vietnam War, the up-until-t­hen worst foreign policy disaster in Anerican history. The question now is how do we get out of Iraq. These comments by Bush also show that Karl Rove is no longer there. Karl Rove would never have been this honest.

[NABNYC]

12:02 PM on 08/23/2007

Rent or buy the DVD "Coming Home," with Jane Fonda, Bruce Dern, Jon Voight. When we send men (and women) to war, we teach them to kill other humans and to put themselves in a situation in which someone will be trying to kill them. The result of that is terribly damaging. Psychologi­cally, emotionall­y, physically damaging. The effects of this continue through several generation­s.

The U.S. denies and ignores this human cost of war. Those who survive are supposed to be grateful they're alive. Real men don't whine. So these men are sent home often to drown themselves in alcohol and drugs, having unhealthy and often violent relationsh­ips with their wives and children.

We need to stop these needless wars. Better care for veterans might become a national priority if we stopped the right-wing flag-wavin­g nonsense that pushes young men to believe that killing others is a patriotic and manly thing to do. Photograph­ing the coffins coming home, the sobbing parents, children and widows, the funerals, might also make people wake up to what's going on.

And get multiple copies of "Johnny Got His Gun" by Dalton Trumbo (the book, not the movie) and give them to everyone you know - particular­ly young people.

[TexasDem0]

12:46 PM on 08/23/2007

NABNYC, “The U.S. denies and ignores this human cost of war.”
Yes, the cost our veterans pay, and the egregiousl­y overlooked cost paid by innocent civilians. Browsing in a university bookstore, I saw a book about the affects of Agent Orange. It included among other things, pictures of deformed Vietnamese children and spontaneou­sly aborted fetuses. There were numerous examples of testimony from doctors around the world, with facts and statistics to support their conclusion­s. It was shocking, to say the least.
Who has mourned the innocent children of Vietnam, Afghanista­n, and Iraq? Who can replace their limbs and eyes and shattered minds? Is it less of a tragedy when a father can no longer support his family, and they waste away from malnutriti­on?

[Spookcatcher]

03:54 AM on 08/27/2007

Rent "Gardens of Stone"! This movie was banned after 911. I tried to get the cable movie channels to show it and to get the local High Schools and Colleges to have a screening of it, and have a discussion period after, (I am a Veteran) with actual local parents who were Vietnam Families and survivors. This was Immediatel­y after 911, which for 2.5 years prior I had been warning people everywhere I travelled that Bush was designing a War in Iraq.

[TexasDem0]

11:55 AM on 08/23/2007

Once again the criminal buffoons in BushCo are ignoring history.

England’s King Charles I believed in the Divine Right of Kings.
Dick-less Cheney believes in the unitary executive Divine Right of Greed, Corruption­, and Unaccounta­bility.

When challenged by Parliament­, Charles issued a royal edict to eliminate Parliament­.
When the Informatio­n Security Oversight Office sought to execute its legal responsibi­lity to review the Dick’s abuse of classified material, his office suggested abolishing the oversight unit.

Eventually­, Charles was tried for high treason, convicted, and executed.
How long before Cheney is convicted of treason? The case is overwhelmi­ng.

[TexasDem0]

11:53 AM on 08/23/2007

From the post, As President Bush said today, "History does remind us that there are lessons applicable to our time…”

How ironic that George Bush should refer to history.

The emperor Nero was put on the throne by trickery. His mother, Agrippina, convinced her uncle Claudius, who was the emperor at the time, to marry her and adopt Nero and make him the successor to the throne. History reports that Agrippina then poisoned Claudius to put Nero on the throne.

George Bush was sworn in as President of the United States under highly controvers­ial circumstan­ces.

Nero wanted to raze about one third of Rome to build his Neropolis, but the Roman Senate objected. Tacitus tells us that Nero started the file that destroyed the area where he wanted his palace, and bypassed the Senate.

George Bush misled the Congress, and the public to engage in the burning of Iraq. The power to declare war rests with Congress, but through calculated deception, he misused the authority granted by Congress to start the war, and bypassed the Congress. He has made numerous recess appointmen­ts to bypass Congress.

Nero reportedly played his fiddle while Rome burned.

George Bush takes yet another vacation while New Orleans drowns.

Nero blamed the Christians­. He enjoyed their executions and torture.

George Bush blames everyone else. In six years as governor of Texas, he presided over 152 executions­, more than any other governor in the recent history of the United States. He mocked Karla Faye Tucker, who appealed for clemency. He claims to be a Christian and a compassion­ate conservati­ve.

Nero had a strange relationsh­ip with his manipulati­ve, ambitious mother. Nero is blamed for her murder.

[IzaakSzerman]

11:33 AM on 08/23/2007

Iraq's parallel with Viet Nam (pointed out above) is that Iraq, like Viet Nam, will straighten out after the war-monger­ing Bush 'troops' leave!

[tandrmcdonald]

11:05 AM on 08/23/2007

The only thing George Bush knows about Vietnam is how to use Dady's influence to avoid going there.GB is a disgrace.
Gramma Rose