Bush Goes to Vietnam

By that, I mean he has done so in the metaphysical sense.

After years of denying any comparison, President Bush has crossed a historic and psychological threshold by finally admitting what many of us have known and feared for years, that is, the haunting similarity between the wars in Vietnam and Iraq.

I will be the first to acknowledge that Vietnam is not a perfect metaphor for the War in Iraq. However, for those of us who lived through “the Vietnam experience” in silence and, to those who are in a state of denial about the War in Iraq, shame on us.

I am a former combat medic who spent 18 months in Vietnam. I am also a baseball fan. As I watch the meltdown taking place in Iraq, I am not only reminded of Vietnam but also the immortal words by baseball great Yogi Berra when he said “this is like déjà vu all over again.”

News that 70 American soldiers have been killed in Iraq, so far, since October 1, has astounded me. When it was reported that Henry Kissinger was “advising” President Bush on the War in Iraq, I swear, it felt like I was having heart palpitations.

Vietnam-era debate about “body count” has also returned. An estimated 655,000 Iraqis have died since 2003 who might still be alive but for the U.S.-led invasion, according to a survey by a U.S. university. Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health estimates that the mortality rates have more than doubled since the invasion to overthrow Saddam Hussein, causing an average of 500 deaths a day. In the past, Mr. Bush has put the civilian death toll in Iraq at 30,000, and hours after details of the latest research were published he dismissed the researchers' methodology as "pretty well discredited".

I felt an overwhelming sense of betrayal by recent headlines that proclaimed “Army and Other Ground Forces Meet '06 Recruiting Goals." Sadly, the headlines omitted the not-so-small fact that the military has “lowered” its standards to reach that goal. By lowering its aptitude standards, the Army reached its goal of 80,000 new recruits. Of that total, 13,600 were accepted under waivers for various medical, moral or criminal problems.

Modern military recruiting began with Richard M. Nixon’s presidential campaign promise to end the draft. However, Defense Secretary Robert McNamara similarly lowered standards in a program known as Project 100,000. The Nixon administration believed it was an effective way to reach their goal for “replacements” and they eventually ensnared about 350,000 “new soldiers.” Today, many of those individuals still struggle with wartime experiences.

Now that President Bush has gone to Vietnam, the question remains, what are the American people going to do about it?