The V-word

Not V from Victory, but V from Vietnam. In the past, George W. Bush stubbornly refused any comparison between Iraq and Vietnam. Now that his brain (Karl Rove) is on the way out, Bush's I.Q. is reaching new depths. In a speech to the Veterans of Foreign War in Kansas City, Bush did make a comparison, but of course a totally erroneous one. Look what happened in Vietnam after we left, goes his distorted logic, so we'd better stay in Iraq. The basic reason why Iraq is in such a bloody mess is precisely the American occupation. End the occupation, and it will still be a bloody mess for some time, but at the same time the first step will have been taken for Iraq to recover from the American invasion. (The Guardian: “This is a war for credibility”; “The Saigon syndrome”)

According to Bush, the mistake America made in Vietnam was not to have stayed there longer, a mistake he does not want to repeat in Iraq. The mistake (or more precisely war crime) America made in Vietnam as well as in Iraq was to commit aggression against those countries. The U.S. has learnt nothing; as Mao said “imperialism can only lift a rock to drop it on its own foot”. It will never learn. Bush also points out that a retreat would embolden the “terrorists”. But it is precisely the U.S. aggression that pushes them to act. Osama bin Laden was once a partner of the U.S. in the struggle against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. So why did he become America's deadly enemy? Because he believes in “Islamo-fascism”? Not at all! Because he objected to the stationing of American troops in Saudi Arabia and other Muslim countries. Leave those Muslim countries alone, and al-Qaeda will no longer have the incentive to attack America. Bush is doing exactly the opposite. al-Qaeda did not have any activities in the Iraq of Saddam, it does now, right under the noses of the American troops.