Iraq-Vietnam Similarities

Capitol Hill Blue has an article comparing the Bush War in Iraq to the Vietnam war. Here are some highlights:

• Both wars initially had majority support from Americans that evaporated as the war dragged on without clear-cut victories.
• Successive escalation by Presidents Johnson and Nixon were billed as setting the stage for victory, to be followed by "Vietnamization" in which South Vietnamese forces would stand up as U.S. forces stood down. Sounds like Bush's game plan for Iraq.
• Before a recent admission of mistakes, Bush had been consistently upbeat. So were Johnson and Nixon administration figures, going back to Gen. William Westmoreland's premature 1969 sighting of a "light at the end of the tunnel."
• Johnson called Vietnam War critics "nervous nellies." Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney accused Democrats of wanting to "cut and run," White House press secretary Tony Snow branded them "Defeatocrats."
• Just as Iraq is depicted as the central front in a global war against terrorism, Vietnam was portrayed as pivotal in a global war against communism.