SOME VETERANS OF VIETNAM SEE IRAQ PARALLETL : Support for war and Mr. Bush eroding

All of the follies of deliberately initiating a ill-advised war
against Iraq are beginning to show erosion of support for the war and
Mr. Bush . The lies, deceptions, propaganda, hyperbolizing, bad
planning and poor leadership are being heavily criticized by retired
generals and other influencial veterans who fought in Vietnam.
The whole debacle begs the question, "When are members of the Bush
Administration going to get it and level with the American people
about the magnitude of the mistake that they have made?"
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Some veterans of Vietnam see Iraq parallel
Fri Nov 7, 6:12 AM ET

By Dave Moniz, USA TODAY

Iraq isn't Vietnam, not yet at least. But as criticism of the Bush
administration's conduct of the war there intensifies, a number of
prominent Vietnam War veterans say they are frequently reminded of the
way the White House fumbled away public support for the only major war
the United States ever lost.

Many who served in Vietnam including members of Congress, former
Pentagon officials and a small but influential group of retired
generals have begun to say what those now in uniform cannot: The Bush
administration, and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld in particular,
have not leveled with the public about the difficulty of winning in
Iraq.


Though the scale of the war in Iraq is vastly different from the one
in Vietnam 58,000 Americans died there over nine years, compared with
381 over eight months so far in Iraq these critics say the Bush
administration is making mistakes that are eerily similar to the ones
Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon and military leaders made a generation
ago. Critics say the administration has underestimated the
determination and skill of the enemy, downplayed the danger to U.S.
troops and offered overly optimistic predictions that seem blatantly
at odds with the grim news Americans see in newspapers and on TV just
like the White House often did during Vietnam.


"The American press and the American public saw our leaders talk about
a 'light at the end of the tunnel' that did not exist" during the
Vietnam War, said Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., in a speech Wednesday.
"We can win the war in Iraq," said McCain, who spent 5 1/2 years as a
POW in North Vietnam, "but not if we lose popular support in the
United States."


McCain and other critics emphasize that many comparisons to Vietnam
are inaccurate. But one that rings true, they say, is a lack of
candor.


"This doesn't mean Iraq is a quagmire. It doesn't mean it's not
winnable and all that Vietnam stuff. But it's the straight story, good
and bad, that we need to articulate to the American people," says Bill
Nash, a retired Army major general who fought in Vietnam in 1969 and
led U.S. peacekeeping operations in Bosnia in the 1990s.


That former military officers would criticize a Republican president
is by itself unusual in the post-Vietnam era, when national defense
has been an unchallenged strength for the GOP. What is perhaps most
damaging to the White House is the suggestion by prominent military
graybeards that the government may be repeating mistakes that undercut
support for the Vietnam War effort.


Balancing needs


The debate over the administration's candor highlights the difficulty
that any president has in wartime: how to balance the need to be
honest with voters with the risk that too much bad news could turn the
public against the war. No administration wants to dwell on bad news
while rallying the nation for a tough job. But the Bush
administration's attempts to filter reality by banning coverage of the
arrival of flag-draped coffins at Dover Air Force Base, for example
strikes some as overkill.


There is no way to know how many Vietnam veterans believe the Bush
administration has strayed too far in its efforts to manage war news.
But it's clear that some who fought there are among the government's
harshest critics.


"We heard the garbage and the lies," retired Marine general Anthony
Zinni told a group of Marine Corps officers Sept. 4, referring to the
government's handling of news in Vietnam. "We saw the sacrifice, and
we swore never again would we allow it to happen," said Zinni, who
fought in Vietnam and went on to command all U.S. forces in the Middle
East before retiring in 2000. "And I ask you, is it happening again?"


Dan Christman, a retired Army three-star general who served in Vietnam
in 1969, says that if the United States is struggling to maintain
order in Iraq a year from now, a battalion of dissenters could grow
into a small army. "There are an awful lot of retired officers who
agree with General Zinni," he says. "This really resonates."


For the Bush administration, which came into office courting a
military that had soured on Bill Clinton, the fallout threatens to
alienate a loyal constituency and damage President Bush's re-election
hopes.


Among those who've publicly challenged the handling of the war besides
Zinni, McCain and Nash are Thomas White, a former secretary of the
Army whom Rumsfeld fired in April; retired general Barry McCaffrey, a
decorated war hero who led American troops against Iraq in 1991; and
former senator Max Cleland, D-Ga., who became a triple amputee in
Vietnam.


The long-term effects that Vietnam had on the military and civilian
worlds good and bad cannot be overstated. At war's end, the Pentagon
scrapped an unpopular military draft and created the all-volunteer
force. The war was so divisive that presidents from Ronald Reagan to
Clinton embraced an informal policy of never starting a war without a
clear exit strategy. And the government's manipulation of information
in Vietnam infected American politics and led to a mistrust that
lingers today.


Veterans split on the issue


Pentagon and White House officials have routinely dismissed war
critics as shortsighted, and for most of the fall have run a campaign
saying that Iraq is in much better shape than news reports indicate.
That tactic has seemed to backfire in recent weeks, however. Two weeks
ago, the disclosure of an internal Rumsfeld memo painted a more
pessimistic picture of progress, conceding U.S. forces were in for "a
long, hard slog" in Iraq and Afghanistan. And last week one day after
saying that violent attacks in Baghdad just showed that terrorists
were "desperate" Bush reversed course and said Iraq remains dangerous.


Paul Van Riper, a retired Marine lieutenant general who served two
tours in Vietnam, says the administration's behavior is "almost a
repeat" of Vietnam-era rhetoric. "For the president to say these
attacks show we are winning is almost Orwellian," Van Riper says.

Gen. James Jones, former Marine Corps Commandant and now NATO's top
military commander, says many positive stories in Iraq have been
drowned out by more sensational acts of violence.

"I do worry a little bit about the fact that every time there is an
incident, someone draws the analogy and says, 'Well, the coalition is
losing its grip,' " says Jones, who served in Vietnam in 1968.

A dividing line

On July 17, the commander of all U.S. forces in the Middle East did
something that has been rare in the Rumsfeld Pentagon. He publicly
contradicted his boss.

Gen. John Abizaid, who graduated from West Point the last year of the
Vietnam War, said the military was fighting a guerrilla war. The
comments were big news because he said publicly what Rumsfeld and
other Pentagon civilians had refused to say for months as they
downplayed the insurgency in Iraq.

Dale Davis, a former Marine intelligence officer who now teaches at
Virginia Military Institute in Lexington, says Abizaid's comments
marked an important milestone. "That was a very clear message. He was
saying, 'I'm not going to soft-sell this,' " Davis says.

Davis says the administration's credibility problem in Iraq is
reflected in statements that started before the war and continue: When
looters pillaged major Iraqi cities, Rumsfeld dismissed the problem as
"untidiness." Rumsfeld once said the violence in Baghdad, which has
included attacks with truck bombs, rocket-propelled grenades and land
mines, was similar to crime in Washington, D.C.

"Clearly, there is a belief among the politicians in the Bush
administration that any admission of error or mistake in Iraq is a bad
political move," Davis says. "It wouldn't be hard for the
administration to say, 'Yeah, we made some mistakes, we need to do
this better.' That is the essence of the problem."

In article <3fabf762.2792104@news.cox-internet.com>, Freedom Warrior
wrote:


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