Iraq War Quagmire: Bush's Vietnam

This is what renowned Conservative Rich Lowry of the National Review had to say on the Iraq war...

"In Iraq, as in Vietnam, we face a vicious insurgency that has worn down the will of the American public. In Iraq, as in Vietnam, we have failed to cut off the enemy from re-supply. In Iraq, as in Vietnam, we have had ever-shifting military strategies. In Iraq, as in Vietnam, we have had trouble building effective, clean governmental institutions in the soil of an alien culture. Most importantly, in Iraq, as in Vietnam, we face the prospect of defeat."

Thomas Friedman, of the NY Times, is no Conservative but he supported the war early on...

"What should really worry the country is not whether the Democrats are being dragged to the left by anti-war activists who haven't thought a whit about the larger struggle we're in. What should worry the country is that the Bush team and the Republican Party, which control all the levers of power and claim to have thought only about this larger struggle, are in total denial about where their strategy has led....Besides a few mavericks including Chuck Hagel and John McCain on Iraq and Dick Lugar and George Shultz on energy, how many Republicans have stood up and questioned the decision-making that has turned the Iraq war into a fiasco? Had more of them done so, instead of just mindlessly applauding the administration, the White House might have changed course when it had a chance."

Here is a Vietnam veteran and scholar's view on the war and its parallels to Vietnam...

"As a scholar of the Vietnam War and a student of Middle East conflict, I have resisted analogies between the Iraqi and Vietnam debacles. When George Bush determined to remove Saddam Hussein, I gave him the benefit of the doubt. I was wrong on both counts. That I am a proud Vietnam veteran does not alter the fact that my war was a mistake. That I am pleased that Saddam is gone does not justify the errors of the vainglorious venture. A more dangerous tyrant resides in North Korea and comparable villainous despots rule in Burma, Sudan, Congo, and other places. Vietnam was never vital to our national security, and the Iraq imbroglio is counterproductive to the greater security concerns of the United States."