Obama Under Fire For His Position on Vietnam.

[NNadir]

It looks like they'll have a new meme to use against us:

http://www.theonion.com/content/news_briefs/obama_under_fire_for">Criticism of Obama For His Actions On Vietnam.

[NEDem]

1. OH NOES, THIS IS HUGH!!!11 SERIES!!11

:rofl: :rofl:

[gateley]

2. Mantra: ANYTHING but the economy. nt

[madmax]

3. What did we accomlish in VN?

We have a monument to 58k dead American soldiers on the Mall. WTF!!

We were right about VN then and the proof is well documented.

[Jackpine Radical]

10. But an amazing number of people just won't accept the idea

that we lost. McCain is among them. They have this idee fixee that if we had ony gone after the north, we could have beaten them. I have no idea what they think we would have "won," but they keep prattling on about how things could have been different.

[kenny blankenship]

33. They're right. Things could have been different.

We could have lost 100,000 - 150,000 men instead of 57,000 men. Or things could have gone really wrong...

What they didn't want and knew the public wouldn't accept was a repeat of Korea. What happened in Korea was that things went OK until China swept down from the North. That was the game changer. Victory in the traditional sense became impossible. China was willing to lose any number of soldiers to fight us to a bloody stalemate. We didn't know at the time but China lost 500,000 KIA in the Korean War. America lost around a tenth as many but that was enough to turn people against the war and vote out Truman. In a democracy, you can't fight a war that the people don't understand or approve of for long.

So politically the idea of another conventional war in Asia like the Korean conflict was poison to everything LBJ wanted to accomplish domestically, starting with his re-election and including the Great Society agenda. Militarily it was poison too. What if China reacted the same way as it had in Korea and sent the People's Liberation Army south to the assistance of Vietnam? Between Korea and the hot years of Vietnam, the People's Republic of China had become an atomic power. One had to bear in mind that Mao hadn't gotten any saner since Korea. Would he really allow U.S. forces to march up to Hanoi along Highway 1, the only possible route of attack into the North, without planting atomic surprises for our tanks and troops? A direct engagement between U.S. and P.R.C. forces in Vietnam had a strong potential to escalate into an exchange of tactical nuclear weapons, which in turn implied a fingers-on-your-buttons nuclear showdown with the U.S.S.R. Either Russia would let the nuking of entire PLA divisions and maybe Haiphong and Kunming slide, or it wouldn't-and if it wouldn't then the whole world would be destroyed.

Was Vietnam worth the risk of blowing up the entire world? No sane person could think so.

[Jackpine Radical]

36. We were always afraid of exactly that--a massive incursion of Chinese troops.

We (my 1st Cav infantry unit) did kill a few Chinese advisers on occasion, but there never was a major Chinese presence in Vietnam. The last thing Ho wanted was to invite the Chinese in. The Chinese were the traditional conquerors of Vietnam, and the great Vietnamese folk-heroes were people who led uprisings that threw out the Chinese at various points in history. In fact, Ho brilliantly played the Chinese against the Russians throughout the war, thereby keeping his country free of both.

[Bryn]

23. My brother is one of those soldiers on the Wall

Please don't joke like that. :hi: Yes I do agree that Viet Name war was nasty and stupid, but be respectful to those soldiers who lost their lives.

[stillcool]

29. Why is mentioning the horrific number..

of American lives lost disrespectful? My brother did not lose his life, he only lost his mind. By the way did you bother to read the article?

[Bryn]

35. Yes I did read the article

and loved it. Very funny. I am sorry about your brother. How is he doing now? :hug:

[madmax]

31. I'm sorry

I didn't mean it as a joke. It's a crying shame. I lost 2 high school friends and my cousin left an arm and a leg in Nam, literally. So very sorry for the loss of your brother :hug: Please don't be angry with me. I hated that war and it seems to me that in 20 years or so we'll be dedicating another monument to those who died in yet another unnecessary war. :cry:

[Bryn]

34. I am sorry, too, for your loved ones due to stupid VN war

Peace :hug: I also hated that war with passion. It was stupid and a losing cause. We lost so many Americans there plus so many of them came home injured for life ... mentally and physically. :cry:

[MadBadger]

25. Ok...but did you read the article?

[madmax]

32. Yes, in the future I won't post anything

that doesn't strickly address the post. Sorry.

[Jackpine Radical]

4. Yeah. He was palling around with Ayers & Bernardine Dohrn,

delivering bombs on his tricycle.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

9. And he talked Jane Fonda into playing in the sandbox with him at the same time....

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

5. At the time that the war ended the VAST MAJORITY of this country was against the war.

They are trying to create revisionist history about it.

Fuck them!!!!!

[endthewar]

6. Bwahahahahaha!

:rofl:

[Sarah Ibarruri]

7. It'll go nowhere. Remember, they already accused him of terrorism....

and instead of focusing on that, people got busy trying to figure out who was dumber, GW Bush or Palin, and Palin won.

[NEDem]

22. Read the article,

Lest you look stoopid.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

24. LOL!! I did. It was funny :-) I shouldn't have jumped out of my skin so quick

I get very defensive when I see Obama criticized anywhere for anything

[NNadir]

26. I set you up...

...but we all had a good laugh - and not at your expense - but at the expense of the Repukes.

I really thought that they would succeed at making this election about the dumb stuff that they usually evoke.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

28. You had my hair standing up on end again! I was like, "NOT AGAIN! " lolol

I'm sending it on to others now LOL!

[dbmk]

8. Did all you guys actually read the article?

[NNadir]

11. Especially the part about the cursive? Cursive?...

...I mean at least Sarah Palin doesn't curse...

[Jackpine Radical]

13. Idunno of they did. I did. I know it's the Onion, but

the VN thing is still there in McCain's little head, and it's kinda scary.

[vi5]

14. You know, I give our side a lot of leeway....

But sometimes even my fellow DUers and liberals make me shake my head in amazement.

[scarletwoman]

21. *snort* I'm thinking, not -- or they might have noticed it's from the Onion.

Actually, I didn't read the article either, but I at least ran my cursor over the text link to see where it went.

:silly:

[BumRushDaShow]

12. Hey! CLICK THE LINK AND READ THE ARTICLE!

:rofl:

[BuyingThyme]

15. They're right. He's been getting a pass on this.

Most people took a stand one way or another. Where was Barack?

[stillcool]

30. First base?

[kevinds13]

16. Next up:

The Domino Theory was RIGHT!

All of SE Asia is commie pink...they just haven't announced it yet. :scared:


:rofl:

[slackmaster]

17. ROMALTFO!

(sic)

[texasleo]

18. lol

[spanone]

19. obama...found GUILTY of acting his age.....crucify him....NOW

[NNadir]

37. I'll bet he wasn't acting his age.

Everything about him suggests that he was way ahead of the curve when he was 12.

[treestar]

20. I bet that commie didn't even register for the draft!

Draft dodger! :rofl:

[trthnd4jstc]

27. The Onion Rocks! Thanks for the Ha Ha's n/t

[pipi_k]

38. Well I wonder what McCain's Red States buddies would think

if they knew he fought against them in the Civil War...


:7

[NNadir]

40. John McCain's Great Great Grandfather 'owned' 52 human beings, and fought in the Civil War

in company I of the Mississippi Cavalry in the Confederate Army, where he was killed or died.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_S._McCain,_Sr.

McCain, who is John S. McCain the third is, rather like his pal the current occupant of the White House, a reckless flake whose power derives largely from his heriditary family connections.

[Jennicut]

39. I am 32 years old and tired of hearing about Vietnam.

Who was where, did what, fought in what military post or took deferments or whatever. I am jut plain tired of it which is why is is nice that Obama was just too damn young to be involved in it at all. Therefore, once he gets elected we never have to talk about it again (hopefully).

[NNadir]

41. I never tire of any part of history. It's too important to ignore.

[Jennicut]

42. Not tired of the historical aspect, tired of the political aspect of it all

We lost in Vietnam. Period. I am tired of hearing this debated by McIsane and the insistence that if only we stayed we could have won. Victory at any cost. It just sickens me.

[1corona4u]

43. Are we still in Nam?

LOL.....whatever.