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March 22, 2006

"V-I-C-T-9/11-O-R-Y!" (pt. 2)

"I'd say I'm spending that capital on the war," Bush said.

"C-A-P-I-T-A-L!
WATCH ME SPEND THAT CAP-I-TAL!
KEEP THEM DOL-LARS ROLL-ING IN!
WE'RE GONNA STAY UNTIL WE ... um.
V-I-E-T-N-- no wait! V-I-C-T-9/11-O-R-Y!"

Got my duct tape, plastic sheeting, powdered milk (make your own Yoohoo with it -- it's great!) and can of tuna. I feel all safe and secure now.

Letterman last night: "President Bush held a press conference this morning, how many of you saw it? (weak scattered applause) Yeah, sounds about right... He said our troops would stay in Iraq till at least 2008. He said we'll disarm Iraq, we're gonna disarm Iran, we might even disarm Dick Cheney!"

Every administration hears what it wants to hear, and disregards the rest: Iraqi diplomat gave U.S. prewar WMD details. "Saddam’s foreign minister told CIA the truth, so why didn’t agency listen?"

"But 9/11 changed every--" hold on, you've set off my propaganda/bullshit-detector. Vietnam changed everything.

I was only 4 in 1968. But I've learned enough history to know how big it was when LBJ announced he would not seek re-election, basically leaving Vietnam for others to deal with.

Here's a few events from what's been called an "intensely-turbulent time" in U.S. and world history:

January 5 - Alexander Dubcek elected as the leader of the Czechoslovakian Communist Party - the "Prague Spring" begins.
January 23 - North Korea seizes the USS Pueblo, claiming the ship violated its territorial waters while spying.
January 30 - The Tet Offensive begins, as Viet Cong forces launch a series of surprise attacks across South Vietnam.
January 31 - Viet Cong soldiers attack the US embassy in Saigon.

February 1 - A Viet Cong officer is executed by Nguyen Ngoc Loan a South Vietnamese National Police Chief. The execution was videotaped and photographed and helped sway public opinion against the war.
February 8 - A civil rights protest staged at a white-only bowling alley in Orangeburg, SC is broken up by highway patrolmen leading to the deaths of three college students.
February 16 - In Haleyville, Alabama the first 9-1-1 emergency telephone system goes into service.
February 24 - The Tet Offensive is halted - South Vietnam recaptures Hué.

March 7 - The First Battle of Saigon begins.
March 16 - My Lai massacre: American troops kill scores of women and children.
March 17 - A demonstration in London's Grosvenor Square against US involvement in the Vietnam War leads to violence - 91 police injured, 200 demonstrators arrested.
March 31 - President Lyndon Johnson announces he will not seek re-election.

As more and more American soldiers and civilians were killed in Vietnam, Johnson's popularity declined, particularly in the face of student protests. During these protests, students would often burn their draft cards and chant the line, "Hey, hey, LBJ, how many kids will you kill today?" In what was termed an October surprise, Johnson announced to the nation on March 31, 1968 that he ordered a complete cessation of "all air, naval, and artillery bombardment of North Vietnam" effective November 1 citing progress with the Paris peace talks. And at the end of his speech he shocked the country by telling them he would not run for re-election...

April 4 - Martin Luther King, Jr. assassinated.
April 20 - English politician Enoch Powell makes controversial Rivers of Blood Speech about immigration: "As I look ahead, I am filled with foreboding. Like the Roman, I seem to see ‘the River Tiber foaming with much blood’."
April 23-April 30 - Student protesters at Columbia University in NYC take over administration buildings and shut down the university.

May - "May of 68" is a symbol of the resistance of that generation. Agitations and strikes in Paris leads many young to believe that a revolution is starting. Student and worker strikes sometimes referred to as the French May nearly bring down the French government.
May 1 - Professor Giorgios Rosas declares independence of his platform nation Isle of the Roses off Rimini, Italy. Italian troops demolish it two months later.

June 3 - Valerie Solanas shoots Andy Warhol as he enters his studio, wounding him.
June 5 - U.S. presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy is shot at the Ambassador Hotel in LA by Sirhan Sirhan. Kennedy died from his injuries the next day.
June 8 - James Earl Ray is arrested for the murder of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
June 29 - Pope Paul VI announces an encyclical entitled "Humanae Vitae", condemning birth control.

July 1 - The CIA's Phoenix Program is officially established.

The Phoenix Program was an "assassination campaign" and has received much criticism as an example of human rights atrocities committed by the CIA and the organizations it supports. Indeed, faulty intelligence often led to the murder of innocent civilians, in contravention to the Geneva Conventions... However, fewer than 10% of the casualties attributed to Phoenix operations were actually targeted by program operatives, with most of the remaining casualties being assigned VCI status after they were killed.

July 17 - Saddam Hussein becomes the Vice Chairman of the Revolutionary Council in Iraq after a coup d'état.
July 23-July 28 - African American militants led by Fred (Ahmed) Evans engage in a fierce gunfight with police in the Glenville Shootout of Cleveland, OH.
July 26 - South Vietnamese opposition leader Truong Dinh Dzu is sentenced to five years hard labor for advocating the formation of a coalition government as a way to move toward an end to the war.

August 20 - 200,000 Warsaw Pact troops and 5,000 tanks invade Czechoslovakia to end the "Prague Spring" of political liberalization.
August 22-August 30 - Police clash with antiwar protesters in Chicago outside the 1968 Democratic National Convention.

October 11 - NASA launches Apollo 7, the first manned Apollo mission, with astronauts Wally Schirra, Donn Eisele and Walter Cunningham aboard.
October 14 - The Department of Defense announces that the Army and Marines will be sending about 24,000 troops back to Vietnam for involuntary second tours.
October 16 - Tommie Smith and John Carlos raise their arms in a black power salute after winning the gold and bronze medals for first and third place.
October 31 - Citing progress with the Paris peace talks, President Johnson announces to the nation that he has ordered a complete cessation of "all air, naval, and artillery bombardment of North Vietnam" effective November 1.

November 5 - U.S. presidential election, 1968: In one of the closest elections in US history, Republican challenger Richard M. Nixon defeats VP Hubert Humphrey and American Independent Party candidate George Wallace.
November 11 - Operation Commando Hunt initiated to interdict men and supplies on the Ho Chi Minh Trail, through Laos into South Vietnam. By the end of the operation, 3 million tons of bombs are dropped on Laos, slowing but not seriously disrupting trail operations.
November 26 - USAF 1st Lt. and Bell UH-1F helicopter pilot James Fleming rescues an Army Special Forces unit pinned down by Viet Cong fire, earning a Medal of Honor for his bravery.

December 24 - US spacecraft Apollo 8 enters orbit around the moon. Astronauts Frank Borman, Jim Lovell and William Anders become the first humans to see the far side of the moon and planet earth as a whole.

We can play Compare & Contrast between Iraq and Vietnam 'til the troops come home. Bottom line: when you're in a hole, stop digging. In the meantime, stop pissin' down my back and tellin' me it's raining. See how easy that is?

What we're getting now is truly a tale told by an idiot, full of soundbites and self-righteous fury, signifying... whatever.

"I'm optimistic we'll succeed. If not, I'd pull our troops out."

Pressed on whether that meant a complete withdrawal would not happen during his presidency, Bush said, "I can only tell you that I will make decisions on force levels based upon what the commanders on the ground say."

White House officials worried Bush's remarks would be read as saying there would not be significant troop reductions during his presidency. They pointed to comments Sunday by Gen. George W. Casey, commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, who said he expected a substantial troop reduction "certainly over the course of 2006 and into 2007."

"GO! FIGHT! WIN!"

Posted by Jeff at March 22, 2006 07:05 AM