I agree that Vietnam was wrong, but for completely different reasons. I think it was wrong for us to support French imperialism.

The UN divided Vietnam into North and South and Ho violated that division almost immediately after securing Soviet assistance in his desire for uniting the country, damn the UN mandate (you know, the UN, that bastion of virtue and freedom). The Soviets and the western allies were busy trying to contain the communist expansionism worldwide. The (flawed, IMO) thinking was that we could use Ho's violation of the division between north and south Vietnam as a reason to confront communist expansion into southeast asia. Kennedy bought into that line and Johnson essentially manufactured an excuse.

Where I differ with most folks who opposed the war is from the time our forces were on the ground, we should have unleashed the military to win the damned war instead of Johnson's micromanaging the damned thing from the Whitehouse with his spinless butt-kisser, McNamara. Don't put the military into a conflict that you do not intend to fully engage.

That is the same danger that anti-war folks are providing the military with concerning Iraq. The time to oppose the Iraq war is past. It is now time to win the damned thing, kick everybody's ass who stands in our way, help establish a form of democracy, protect it while it gets established, then get the heck out.

Was it right or wrong to get into Iraq? Come back in 40 years and the argument will rage just as certainly as the argument about Vietnam. But for goodness sake, support the military doing their job. Push for victory. Doing less endangers young men and women. Both ours and Iraqi.

Bot