Reply #4: Actually, google brings out some interesting history

[beachmom]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._William_Fulbright

On August 7, 1964, a unanimous House of Representatives and all but two senators passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, which led to the further escalation of the Vietnam War. Fulbright, who voted for the resolution, would later write:

Many Senators who accepted the Gulf of Tonkin resolution without question might well not have done so had they foreseen that it would subsequently be interpreted as a sweeping Congressional endorsement for the conduct of a large-scale war in Asia.

Gee, the guy is JUST spinning. He should have KNOWN.


Oh, and this article talks about Vietnam and Iraq:

http://www.arktimes.com/Articles/ArticleViewer.aspx?ArticleID=4338af85-2b35-4819-ae28-14197fc0c476

However, many of the congressional representatives who might be inclined to oppose the war are paralyzed by their vote for the Iraq resolution. They know that critics will call them hypocrites if they say something now.

But in this, too, they ignore history, which demonstrates that there is no dishonor in turning against a decision that was based on misleading information. For strength they can look to the example of U.S. Sen. J. William Fulbright of Arkansas.

Fulbright, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, not only voted for the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, he introduced it, because Johnson asked him to. This did not stop him from becoming an initial lone dissenter as the U.S. sent more troops to Vietnam. In fact, he became increasingly furious as he realized that he was duped into helping escalate the conflict, and he opened hearings in 1968 to investigate the Tonkin incident.

It took tremendous courage to stand up to a president in the same political party during an era when being against a war was almost universally considered unpatriotic and counter-cultural.

Of course, that's all a bogus argument. Because, you know, since Fulbright voted for the war, he had ZERO moral capital to try to end it.

:sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: