George W. Bush...Right about Viet Nam, for the wrong reason

In drawing an analogy between Viet Nam and Iraq, Bush was right, but not for the reasons that have sprung from the voices in his head.

The lessons from Viet Nam have more to do with the consequences of starting an war on the basis of flawed, spun and cooked intel, as was done with the passage of the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution...as was done with the Bush administration's justifications for invading Iraq.

The consequences of the withdrawal from Viet Nam were a direct result of the flawed reasoning behind the war to begin with. We see the same political decisions behind the strategy, or lack thereof, in Viet Nam as we see behind the failed strategies in Iraq.

The consequences of withdrawal from Iraq will be no different if Bush and his administration remain as stubbornly intransigent about refusing to engage with those nations which border Iraq and the region as they have to date. The region will be further destabilized and the current proxy war between Sunni Saudi Arabia and Shi'ia Iraq could explode into a hot war threatening not only the region, but the world at large. The sectarian violence, some would say civil war, would explode into an orgy of death and destruction. Why? Because Bush went into Iraq for no reason other than he could and he and his neo-con supporters cooked the intel to get their way...A war of choice for specious reasons...Just like Viet Nam. Should we expect any difference, then, in the outcome?