6.26.2005

Far worse than Vietnam...

They'll surely vilify one of their own... in fact, it's already happened, but Chuck Hagel continues to speak out against the war he once supported.

Hagel spoke to a crowd of American Legion members today in Nebraska...

Sen. Chuck Hagel addresses more than 200 Nebraska American Legion members in Grand Island on Saturday.

It took 20 minutes, but it boiled down to this:

The Bush team sent in too few troops to fight the war leading to today's chaos and rising deaths of Americans and Iraqis. Terrorists are "pouring in" to Iraq.

Basic living standards are worse than a year ago in Iraq. Civil war is perilously close to erupting there. Allies aren't helping much. The American public is losing its trust in President Bush's handling of the conflict.

And Hagel's deep fear is that it will all plunge into another Vietnam debacle, prompting Congress to force another abrupt pullout as it did in 1975.

"What we don't want to happen is for this to end up another Vietnam," Hagel told the legionnaires, "because the consequences would be catastrophic."

It would be far worse than Vietnam, says Hagel, a twice-wounded veteran of that conflict, which killed 58,000 Americans.

One of the important points from the article, not quoted above, is that Hagel received a standing ovation from the crowd at the conclusion of his speech. Hagel is a veteran. The crowd was made up of veterans. They can see when the shit is hitting the fan.

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