CBS's Bob Schieffer just can't resist making analogies to Vietnam, especially when it comes to a setback in Iraq. In the wake of British Prime Minister Tony Blair's decision to start withdrawing his nation's troops from Iraq, which CBS Evening News anchor Katie Couric paired with Denmark's decision to withdraw its 400 soldiers to form her lead story Wednesday night about “the shrinking U.S.-led coalition in Iraq,” Bob Schieffer came aboard via satellite from Washington, DC to compare the Iraq situation to Vietnam: “I think what we're seeing here, Katie, is what happened back during the Vietnam era when things were going badly and the crusty old Senator from Vermont, George Aiken, said 'there's only one way out there, that's to declare victory and just leave.'”
Schieffer often sees the world through the prism of Vietnam. This was at least the third time just this year he has raised the comparison:
On Face the Nation on the morning after the January 27 anti-Iraq war protest in Washington, DC, Schieffer reminisced:
“Yesterday in Washington was like a day from yesteryear -- the war that to many seems long ago and far away: the war in Vietnam. Yesterday, hundreds of thousands of people descended on the capital to protest the war in Iraq.”
The night after President Bush's January address announcing the surge, Schieffer asserted:
“You really have to go back to Vietnam and Watergate to find presidential speeches on television that didn't give the President at least a little bump in the polls.”
In early December, assessing a CBS News poll, Schieffer maintained:
“This is opposition that is taking on historic proportions. By 1973, at the height of American opposition to the war in Vietnam, a Gallup poll showed that 60 percent of those polled said it had been a mistake to send our troops to Vietnam. Well, today's poll shows that slightly more Americans than that, 62 percent, now believe it was a mistake to go to Iraq. That is simply stunning."
Back in September, in a “freeSpeech” commentary (remember those?) on the CBS Evening News, Schieffer opined:
“I am beginning to see parallels in the remarkably similar way the government then and the government now reports war news. During Vietnam, the government was on a never ending search for good news. Victory was always just around the corner. Over and over there were sightings of that light at the end of the tunnel. In 1964, a Senator returned from the war zone and declared: 'We are winning and everybody knows it, but Americans.' Sound familiar?”
In May, after protesters confronted Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld, Schieffer, as anchor of the CBS Evening News, trumpeted:
“Not since the Vietnam War has a Secretary of Defense been under the kind of criticism that Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld has been getting lately.”
The Couric/Schieffer exchange on the February 21 CBS Evening News:
Couric: “Now to Washington and our chief correspondent there, Bob Schieffer. Bob, the Bush administration is characterizing the British draw down as a sign of success. Is anyone buying that?”Schieffer: “Well, if that's the claim, it's going to be a very hard sell to a country and a public that has already turned against this war, and especially a hard sell with the Congress. I think what we're seeing here, Katie, is what happened back during the Vietnam era when things were going badly and the crusty old Senator from Vermont, George Aiken, said 'there's only one way out here, that's to declare victory and just leave.' That's what we're seeing. Tony Blair is telling his people 'we've done our job, now we're going to start bringing our people home.'"
Couric: “And Bob, do you think this will change minds or change even votes on Capitol Hill?”
Schieffer: “Well, I think it's going to make the President even more isolated than perhaps he is now. The Democrats have already pounced on this. They say it shows that the President's idea of putting more troops in is not the solution and that there is not a military solution, there has to be a diplomatic solution. Whether you're for the war or against the war, Katie, what this underlines tonight is that the coalition that the President put together to fight this war is now coming apart.”
—Brent Baker is Vice President for Research and Publications at the Media Research Center
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history lesson
February 21, 2007 - 20:57 ET by AuH2Omaneveryone seems to forget that leaving nam because of all the criticism was a mistake, 3 million people died as a result and the world has never forgotten, except perhaps the libs.
If Bush leaves Iraq now, the libs will be right in their analogy about this war and nam. I get the impression that the surge is working and the latest polls show most Americans want to stay and finish the job.
that 3 million estimate is ve
February 21, 2007 - 21:14 ET by kathleenirishthat 3 million estimate is very conservative. It's at least 5 mil, and one could make the argument that the number continues to grow.
"He who has a thousand friends has not a friend to spare, and he who has one enemy will meet him everywhere" -Ali ibn-Abi-Talib, 4th Islamic Caliph
The rallying cry back then
February 22, 2007 - 07:02 ET by motherbeltThe rallying cry back then was "Peace with honor" (pay no attention to all those dead Vietnamese and Cambodians).
"Peace with honor" indeed!
AuH2Oman: I'm a little late - here's an article on 'death'.
February 22, 2007 - 09:14 ET by acaiguanaAuH20man: I'm a little late - here's an article on 'death'.
Makes your point (FrontPage magazine) in the context of discussion about Iraq.
I find the Liberal obsession with 'death' odd as they certainly showed zero interest in Iraqi death prior to 'Bush's War'.
But I think the majority of Iraqis are happy Saddam is gone.
ACA
...
Quoted from: 'Acaiguana Notes from the Bomb Shelter' (soon to be a movie at theaters near you)
The surge is working?
February 22, 2007 - 14:57 ET by Chidi NwachukhuThanks Polyanna. I have to ask, how is the surge working? The troops won't even be on the ground until May.
Americans Gave This Man Ammunition
February 21, 2007 - 21:41 ET by emjem24If Americans had had any sense they would have actually voted for people who are independent of pandering and self-interest. However, since most Americans (57%) want to steal from the rich to give to the poor and think they need welfare, social security, medicare, all the usual crutches in life to get by they voted for people who will give it to them - the DEMOCRATS and the liberal media who are their propagandists. There is at least a million people who listen to this drivel and I don't know why. News has ceased to exist on this show for quite some time. And Bobby's continued Vietnam comparisons are just disingenous. Time to get some originality and lose the tired liberal talking points.
The difficult we do immediately; the impossible takes a little longer. Air Force Motto
emjem says: When your brain's stuck on liberalism it self-destructs.
on tonight's NBC news about t
February 21, 2007 - 21:57 ET by Conservative in the Artson tonight's NBC news about this they have one of thier favorite liberal "expert" from the Brookings Institute talk about the British leaving. He asked if things are going so well in the south that the British can leave, but Bush needs to send more troops to Bagdad, why can't we just send the leaving British north a few miles to help out?
Sounds like a legit question that I'd like answered from some of our NB readers that have military backgrounds. Here's my take. We've been spending lots of time trying to be friends to the natives around Bagdad. Sending in new troops that answer to different bosses and have different chains of commands than our troops will only lead to trouble. More chances for friendly fire problems. right?
Plenty of issues involved wit
February 22, 2007 - 10:32 ET by BDPlenty of issues involved with bringing the brits north. Mostly logistical.
I am not a trained logistician, but in my opinion the British log train is not large enough to operate at the distances involved.
While the US could adequately feed the brits, keeping their gear running with spares would be something else again. I invite UNSANE to discuss this in greater depth.
North Vietnam was supplied by
February 21, 2007 - 22:08 ET by upcountrywaterNorth Vietnam was supplied by a superpower USSR ,we didn't stop that.
Iraq is supplied by another soon to wannabe superpower Iran .
NOT!!
Scarry how easy it is for the MSM to convince us OF that IRAQ= VIETNAM.
I am never going to stop remi
February 21, 2007 - 22:39 ET by Chicago RepublicanI am never going to stop reminding people of this. The only reason that South Vietnam fell in 1975 was because of the Useful Idiots. The blood of American servicemen in Vietnam will forever be on their hands. God Forbid, if Iraq becomes another Vietnam, the same guilt will lie with the same band of shallow, weak people in the Media. The blame will lie with those who have no idea what it takes to provide them their comfortable glass bubble of elitism and cynism in a world of ignorant third world thugs who know nothing but ignorant fascism and misguided hatred.
Baghdad Bob Returns
February 21, 2007 - 22:43 ET by acumen"......there has to be a diplomatic solution."
I agree Bob. Bush just hasn't reached out to the misunderstood terrorists enough. But we have the Dems in charge of Congress now and they are going to take us in a new direction. Perhaps if Pelosi, Kerry and their band of misfits made a return trip to Iraq. Sure they were snubbed on the last visit but maybe this time they could visit with more like-minded folks. Possibly a townhall meeting in Ramadi is in order. The Dems and the terrornuts could celebrate their shared hatred of Israel, Bush, the Christian right and all other folks that don't think exactly the way they do. At the same time, such a meeting could lead to healing on culturally divisive issues that seperate the two sides.
Obviously there are some areas of disagreement. The terrorists might not be open to exploring the Dem policies of legalized killing of the unborn and perveted sex marriage and yes, the Islamo fascist methods of slaughtering women that go out in public without a male family escort might be a speed-bump in the road to peace. But it doesn't have to be all about work. Why not make it a fashion show fundraiser to help Hezbollah replace the thousands of missles deployed in the Israeli conflict? The terrorists could highlight the latest stay-at-home-until-deployed Islamic-womans accessorized burka matched with that perfect explosive vest. The Dems could demonstrate that just right thong look when you're trying to seduce a President or Dictator. Yes Bob, diplomacy between lunatics is definitely the answer. If only we had thought of that with Hitler, Hirohito or Ho Chi Minh. Oh that's right, we did - that didn't work either.
The only similarity between t
February 21, 2007 - 22:50 ET by TEThe only similarity between the war in Vietnam and the war in Iraq is: Schieffer didn't know a damn thing about the war in Vietnam, and now Schieffer doesn't know a damn thing about the war in Iraq.
Pack in in!
February 21, 2007 - 23:13 ET by pickerseniorI'm older than this idiot and wonder why he doesn't pack it in, and quit spreading his poison. He seems to keep following that other older idiot Andy Rooney.
Reality to him is becoming more of a reach every day he goes on. Amazing the coverage people like this get in their isolated view of the world that they want to see vs. the world as it is.
You're right Bob, it is just
February 21, 2007 - 22:59 ET by gfrrmanYou're right Bob, it is just like Viet Nam. You have the defeatist surrender monkey Democrats ready at the take to defund the war and declare defeat and also the endless negative drumbeat of" we're losing" from the propaganda mouthpiece known as the media. Ah, the good old days, Bob. You pathetic A**hat.
Bob Shieffer........ your in
February 21, 2007 - 23:01 ET by bigtimerBob Shieffer....
.... your initials fit you perfectly.
I declare Bob Schieffer a use
February 22, 2007 - 09:12 ET by MivvisI declare Bob Schieffer a useful idiot.
history
February 22, 2007 - 19:42 ET by pbanks7Remember back in the 80's when Daniel Ortega flew to Moscow 2 days after our congress collectively kissed his as$? Mary McGrory felt betrayed! She was a true useful idiot. Where were the clarion calls to repudiate their votes, hmmm?
The appeasers will never get it. They truly believe that negotiating concessions to their enemies will lead to peace - "we need to show our good intentions" - unless their enemies are Republicans, then show no mercy. They are more concerned that Republicans lose than al Qaeda. Yes, they would rather see our military lose, and our soldiers die, if it gives them a political advantage.
Scary people. My boss actually believes Teddy Kennedy is more of a patriot than Ronald Reagan was. Really.
Ignorance is bliss. It's easier to repeat a mindless slogan than to do some actual research.