Hagel Compares Iraq To Vietnam
Is it any wonder that Chuck Hagel always seems to make the lists of conservatives’ least favorite Republicans? McCain always makes those lists, as well, but at least he knows that statements like this recent one from Hagel do nothing to help the war effort.
Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska on Thursday said the United States is “getting more and more bogged down” in Iraq and stood by his comments that the White House is disconnected from reality and losing the war.The longer U.S. forces remain in Iraq, he said, the more it begins to resemble the Vietnam war.
Hagel mocked Vice President Dick Cheney’s assertion in June that the insurgency in Iraq was in its “last throes,” saying the U.S. death toll has risen amid insurgent attacks.
“Maybe the vice president can explain the increase in casualties we’re taking,” the Nebraskan told CNN.
“If that’s winning, then he’s got a different definition of winning than I do.”
On Thursday, Cheney told a veterans group that “Iraq is a critical front in the war on terror, and victory there is critical to the future security of the U.S.”
“Every man and woman who fights and sacrifices in this war is serving a just and noble cause,” Cheney told the 73rd National Convention of the Military Order of the Purple Heart in Springfield, Missouri.
Hagel, an Army infantry squad leader during the Vietnam war, sits on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and supported the October 2002 resolution authorizing military action against Iraq.
But he said the United States risks losing more public support for the conflict amid a rising cost in blood and money.
“The casualties we’re taking, the billion dollars a week we’re putting in there, the kind of commitment we’ve got — we’re not going to be able to sustain it,” he said.
Iraq and Vietnam still have more differences than similarities, he said, but “there is a parallel emerging.”
“The longer we stay in Iraq, the more similarities will start to develop, meaning essentially that we are getting more and more bogged down, taking more and more casualties, more and more heated dissension and debate in the United States,” Hagel said.
Democrats have been comparing Iraq to Vietnam from the earliest days of the conflict, and many compared Afghanistan to Vietnam before that. Why has Hagel decided to go down that road? Has it not occurred to him that much of what is causing public support to erode and “dissention and debate” to become heated is statements like the ones he is now making? Is Hagel an idiot or an opportunistic politician trying to take advantage of polls showing all time low support for the war in Iraq? It doesn’t much matter, does it? The result is the same. (Link via Lucianne.com)
UPDATE: This post is generating some comments and quite a few of them are of the “you are a chickenhawk and therefore have no right to speak about the war” variety, and especially no right to criiticize a Vietnam War vet like Hagel. Yawn. The same “argument” (if you can call attempting to silence my voice an argument) was used in 2004. Vietnam vet Kerry was not to be questioned about any opinions he had on anything, especially the war, because he was a war hero, but it was okay to take any measure possible to slime and attempt to silence the 250 plus other Vietnam Vets (many highly decorated and some POWs) so that their voices would not be heard. But their voices were heard. That strategy didn’t work so well for Dems in 2004, now did it? I predict that it will not be any more successful this time around. I think that just about everyone on the right has now addressed the silliness of the chickenhawk “argument.” I have weighed in myself and have linked to others who have, as well. Now everytime I hear “chickenhawk” all I smell is desperation.
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