Iraq and Vietnam & Bush's Folly

Democrats in Self-Destruct Mode CCLXI

Rich Lowry blogs, yesterday, a list of Iraq-Vietnam analogies, from a reader.

• The anti-war crowd portrayed the administration as evil and un-caring.
• John Kerry used the anti-war movement for his personal, political aspirations.
• Ignorant comparisons were made between the President and Hitler.
• No thought was given to the consequences the South Vietnamese people would suffer if we immediately pulled out our troops.
• The morale of our troops overseas suffered because of the anti-war movement's actions at home while the enemy's resolve was bolstered.
• The left proclaimed that the South Vietnamese people would be better off under the North's rule instead of being subjected to U.S. intervention.
• All enemies of freedom called the U.S. efforts imperialistic.
• Industry greed was claimed to be the main reason for the war.
• The administration was accused of manufacturing its reasons for the war.
• Hollywood celebrities received much free publicity by speaking out against the war, and most of Hollywood was adamantly against it.
• A major network's anchorman lost his objectivity and proclaimed the war to be a losing enterprise.
• Grieving families of killed servicemen lashed out angrily at the government.
• American Colleges and Universities were a festering cesspool of leftist, anti-war propaganda.
• "Make Love, Not War" was a simplistic sound-bite thought to be very, very clever.
• American troops were claimed to come, unfairly, only from lower-income families.
• The leftists treated the U.N. as a legitimate, intelligent, governing body that would act in our country's best interests.
• Atrocities committed by the North Vietnamese were downplayed and under-reported by the three major networks.
• Servicemen's efforts at humanitarian aid were ignored in favor of body counts and negative war images.
• Congress busied itself with finger pointing and witch-hunting.

Which reminds me — have you seen the War Against Saddam Hussein referred to as Bush's Folly? Well, I have. I think it must have been on some talking-points memo, because I saw it everywhere (okay, I exaggerate) a week or two ago, but nowhere since then.

Anyway, unless I'm mistaken, the last venture in American political life that was referred to as a "folly" was Seward's Folly. And we all know how badly that turned out.

You know about Seward's Folly, no? The purchase of Alaska from Russia in 1867 for $7,200,000. That is, for roughly 2.5 cents (cents!) per acre. For roughly 586,400 square miles of territory. (Roughly twice the size of Texas.)

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Fri. 04/16/04 06:48:00 AM
Categorized as Democrats in Self-Destruct Mode.