PIRANHAS

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Recently a friend asked me to compare what is taking place in Iraq with our involvement almost four decades ago in Vietnam...

The main similarity seems to be a resurgence of both political and media piranhas, who continuously gnaw at the underbelly of American patriotism and support. They are bravely led in this comparative observation of a pending Iraq/Vietnam quagmire by none other than Senator Edward Kennedy, whose only claim to heroics was running away from the accident he caused at Chappaquiddick in 1969. Providing a national voice for Kennedy and other anti-war Democrats are the cameras and pens of the mainstream media.

Vietnam veteran Warren Bonesteel is another who feels politicians are the only ones who can make Iraq another Vietnam. Formerly a registered Democrat, he says he is now considered a conservative. “The Democrats have been taken over by the left wing extremists”, he claims. “They have fed the American public lies and the people have swallowed them.”

“The Vietnam War is defined as an extension of failed political aims”, he says. “It was lost by the politicians of both political parties of this nation”.

Now, concerning Iraq, Bonesteel is angry. “I am mad. I’m tired of dealing with, hearing about, or tolerating left wing lies. When those views are based on ignorance and partial truth…I no longer have the time or patience for them. They go on about war for oil and some big outfit Cheney worked for. That is left-winger’s protocol. It’s Socialist protocol. It’s Communist protocol. It’s the Islamic Terrorist protocol.”

(John Wambough) also sees similarity in how the media tends to portray great success as great failure. He sees today’s reporting to be much like the reporting from Vietnam. “For example,” he says, “The Tet offensive was a military success for us but portrayed as a failure by the media and then used as a political weapon. Aren’t we seeing a parallel of this today in the liberal media – taking success and turning it into failure for political purposes? And to the great detriment of our national security.”