Home > Comparing Iraq and Vietnam
U.S. Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., who so ably opposed the
Bush administration’s rush to attack Iraq in 2003,
continues to offer the steadiest and wisest criticism
of this deeply misguided war.
On Wednesday, as some of the most violent fighting
since the start of the war dramatically increased the
death toll of Americans and Iraqis, Byrd said to the
Senate: "Surely I am not the only one who hears echoes
of Vietnam in this development."
Byrd’s words were not greeted warmly by Republican
senators such as Georgia’s Saxby Chambliss, a
particularly unthinking enthusiast for the current
fight. Chambliss accused critics such as Byrd of making
"statements that tend to incite the opposition." That’s
an absurd charge. The fact is that most of the rest of
the world has for some time now been discussing
comparisons between the Vietnam imbroglio and the
current mess in Iraq. Chambliss, who was elected to the
Senate on the basis of a scurrilous campaign that
impugned the patriotism of U.S. Sen. Max Cleland, a
disabled Vietnam veteran, has absolutely no credibility
on this issue.
U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., has a record of
independence and honorable service that must be
regarded more favorably. But his attempt to invoke his
status as a Vietnam War veteran to challenge the
comparisons made by Byrd and others was ineffectual.
The problem was that, while McCain’s experience as a
pilot and a prisoner of war must be respected, it is
Byrd’s experience in the Senate that is most
significant here.
Byrd served in the Senate throughout the Vietnam War,
as did one other member, U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-
Mass. Both men made the mistake of voting for the Gulf
of Tonkin resolution that was used as an excuse to
dramatically increase U.S. military involvement. They
have not forgotten what happens when an administration
deliberately deceives Congress in order to expand a war
in which American troops have no place.
Now, both Byrd and Kennedy, who between them have
almost 90 years of Senate experience, are warning
Americans that the Bush administration has put this
country on a dangerous course.
The bloody fighting in Fallujah and other Iraqi cities
this past week was not a Tet offensive. Nor is it
possible to find precise parallels between the
degeneration of the U.S. occupation of Vietnam in the
mid-1960s and the U.S. occupation of Iraq today.
But anyone who has heard the Bush administration’s
absurd claims that the current occupation is going
pretty much as planned must, if they are being honest
with themselves, hear echoes of Vietnam. At the heart
of the matter is an echo that cannot be denied.
The United States should not have invaded and occupied
Vietnam in the 1960s and 1970s.
The United States should not have invaded and occupied
Iraq in 2003 and 2004.
Here’s another echo: Ultimately, as with Vietnam, it is
only a matter of time before the casualty counts and
the fruitless attempts to pacify an occupied land will
lead more Americans to echo the arguments made by
Robert Byrd and other senators who recognize that this
war is a disaster from which the United States must
extricate itself.