Today John McCain in the last throes of his striaght (and slightly 'round the corner) talk tour went on This Week to pump a last few puffs of air into the soon to be orally delivered Presi-Treaus Report on our "success" in Iraq so far.
Fortunately John Kerry was also there to provide a bit of Reality-Checking, not to mention sanity.
(Video from Move On documenting the White House version of "progress")
Prefacing this latest version of the "We're Kicking Ass in Iraq" Show prior to the upcoming report was a brief clip from April of 1967 where Gen. Westmoreland spoke to a joint session of Congress to explain just how well we're doing on our last disastrous military boondoogle - Vietnam.Westmoreland: The strategy we are pursuing is the correct one. And that it is making progress.
Making "progress"? - It's seem we're always making progress, just before we finally realize we've been running in circles, meanwhile the cost of slowly digging this ditch of mystical "progress" is often paid for in buckets of treasure and blood.
While we continued to "make progress" in South East Asia the U.S. lost approx 38,000 troops in from 1968 and 1972. Nice job.
After the clip Stephanapolous also pointed out that much of the public is highly skeptical of Patreaus' upcoming report.
Hmm, ya think?
- 43% Believe Patreaus will fudge the numbers
- 66% Believe Bush will continue his current course regardless of what the report says
- Only 28% believe that things are now “better in iraq”
None of this detered John McCain as he first tried to rehabilitate Patreaus from comparisons to Westmoreland.
McCain – Petreaus new strategy is more like that of Gen. Abrams [who significantly changed things in Vietnam] than Westmoreland.
So those additional 38,000 deaths should be laid at whose feet then? Westmoreland who false claimed we were "making progress" or Abrams who still didn't make any real progress even after this dramatic strategy change? How many more American Deaths will we be counting after this latest "progress" report?
But then again we have to show some sympathy to McCain, you see - he of course only wants what we all want right?
McCain : Of course we are all tired of this war and want our troops out - but we need to get out with honor”
My that phrase sounds familiar doesn't it, might it have previously been uttered by Richard Milhouse Nixon in 1973 when he finally announced the agreement to end the vietnam war?
