Bush's new Iraq offensive is like Nixon's Cambodia- Widening war

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President Richard Nixon's Vietnamization Speech

November 3, 1969

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I pledged in my campaign for the Presidency to end the war in a way that we could win the peace. I have initiated a plan of action which will enable me to keep that pledge.

The more support I can have from the American people, the sooner that pledge can be redeemed, for the more divided we are at home, the less likely the enemy is to negotiate at Paris.

Let us be united for peace. Let us also be united against defeat. Because let us understand: North Vietnam cannot defeat or humiliate the United States. Only Americans can do that.

Fifty years ago, in this room and at this very desk, President Woodrow Wilson spoke words which caught the imagination of a war-weary world. He said: "This is the war to end war." His dream for peace after World War I was shattered on the hard realities of great power politics and Woodrow Wilson died a broken man. Tonight I do not tell you that the war in Vietnam is the war to end wars. But I do say this: I have initiated a plan which will end this war in a way that will bring us closer to that great goal to which Woodrow Wilson and every American President in our history has been dedicated - the goal of a just and lasting peace.



Address to the Nation on the Situation in Southeast Asia
President Richard M. Nixon
April 30, 1970

http://www.mekong.net/cambodia/nixon430.htm

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In cooperation with the armed forces of South Vietnam, attacks are being launched this week to clean out major enemy sanctuaries on the Cambodian-Vietnam border.

A major responsibility for the ground operations is being assumed by South Vietnamese forces. For example, the attacks in several areas, including the Parrot's Beak that I referred to a moment ago, are exclusively South Vietnamese ground operations under South Vietnamese command with the United States providing air and logistical support.

There is one area, however, immediately above Parrot's Beak, where I have concluded that a combined American and South Vietnamese operation is necessary.

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My fellow Americans, we live in an age of anarchy, both abroad and at home. We see mindless attacks on all the great institutions which have been created by free civilizations in the last 500 years. Even here in the United States, great universities are being systematically destroyed. Small nations all over the world find themselves under attack from within and from without.

If, when the chips are down, the world's most powerful nation, the United States of America, acts like a pitiful, helpless giant, the forces of totalitarianism and anarchy will threaten free nations and free institutions throughout the world.

It is not our power but our will and character that is being tested tonight. The question all Americans must ask and answer tonight is this: Does the richest and strongest nation in the history of the world have the character to meet a direct challenge by a group which rejects every effort to win a just peace, ignores our warning, tramples on solemn agreements, violates the neutrality of an unarmed people, and uses our prisoners as hostages?

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Fri, Sep. 17, 2004

Kerry accuses Bush of hiding plan to mobilize reservists

BY FRANK JAMES AND RICK PEARSON

Chicago Tribune
http://www.kansas.com/mld/kansas/news/special_packages/election2004/9693680.htm

"He won't tell us what congressional leaders are now saying, that this administration is planning yet another substantial call-up of reservist and Guard units immediately after the election," Kerry said at a town hall-style meeting at a community center in the battleground state of New Mexico. "Hide it from people through the election, then make the move."

Kerry's comments came as Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., issued a statement in which he said he had learned through conversations with Pentagon officials that beginning in November, "the Bush administration plans to call up large numbers of the military Guard and Reserves, to include plans that they previously had put off to call up the Individual Ready Reserve." Murtha is the ranking Democrat on the House Appropriations defense subcommittee.

But even as Kerry accused Bush of a secret mobilization plan to quell disorder in Iraq, he questioned whether the president really knows "what's happening" there.

"He doesn't tell us that with each passing day, we're seeing more chaos, more violence, more indiscriminate killings," Kerry said. "He won't tell us that, day by day, we're running out of soldiers and that we're now resorted to a backdoor draft of our reservists and our National Guard."




Bush Warns of Worsening Violence in Iraq, Afghanistan

Saturday, September 18, 2004

"Terrorist enemies are trying to stop the progress of both those countries, and their violent and merciless attacks may increase as elections draw near," Bush told radio listeners.

"But all the world can be certain: America and our allies will keep our commitments to the Afghan and Iraqi people."

"Never in the history of the United Nations have we faced so many opportunities to create a safer world by building a better world," Bush said in his radio address.

"For the sake of our common security, and for the sake of our common values, the international community must rise to this historic moment. And the United States is prepared to lead."

http://news.lycos.com/wired/story.asp?section=Breaking&storyId=923298


U.S. Pounds Falluja

Friday, September 17, 2004

Early Friday, U.S. warplanes destroyed a compound in south central Falluja that the U.S. military said was also used by Zarqawi's militants.

Iraq's Health Ministry said at least 45 civilians had been killed in the air strikes. Reuters television images showed bloodied bodies, including women and children, on hospital beds.

Friday evening, U.S. aircraft again attacked targets in Falluja, destroying four houses, residents said. Doctors at Falluja's hospital said at least six people were killed.

In the southern city of Basra, British troops raided an office used by supporters of rebel cleric Moqtada al Sadr, whose militiamen launched two bloody uprisings this year in the holy city of Najaf. The soldiers seized a large quantity of weapons and explosives, a military spokesman said.

http://news.lycos.com/wired/story.asp?section=World&storyId=922703

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1. Apparently some folks are more content claiming that John Kerry

would widen the war rather than focusing on Bush's desperate plan to 'win' the Iraq conflict with new offensives, escalation of violence, and increased deployments from already strained military forces. This escalation is almost exactly the same effort made by Nixon after he claimed that he was ending the war.

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2. The response to this post is crap

compared to the hyperventilated posts about Kerry will win/lose, and sacndalous tidbits. I wonder if folks here care more about the election than they do the war.

Could be me. Could be a flaw in my posts. hard to tell without any response. I work nights and I come home in the morning before I sleep and give my best here. It feels like a waste of time. I'm already talking to myself. I don't need to do that here. Where is the debate?

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3. Many care more about the election than the war

but claim to be so "anti-war". It's amazing that on such an anti-war website, a topic about the widening of the war for political purposes will probably drop like a rock.