Senator Edward Kennedy:”Iraq is George Bush’s Vietnam”

Senator Edward Kennedy:”Iraq is George Bush’s Vietnam”
By Al Click

U.S. Senator Edward M. Kennedy launched a scathing critique of President George W. Bush, describing his Iraq policy as “ridiculous” and saying that it’s the president’s “Vietnam”.

President Bush had stated in an interview that his re-election was the validation of going to war in Iraq, ”The American people listened to different assessments made about what was taking place in Iraq, and they looked at the two candidates, and chose me.”

Kennedy responded to Bush’s claim by saying, “I think that’s ridiculous”.

When asked on a television program, Kennedy stated former President Lyndon Johnson had easily won the elections during the Vietnam War but didn’t seek re-election in 1968. ”Look what happened,” Kennedy said. ”Lyndon Johnson had to basically abdicate the presidency because of Vietnam. . . . This is clearly George Bush’s Vietnam.”

Johnson is widely believed not to have sought re-election due to the drain on time, resources and his popularity resulting from failures in Vietnam.

In his interview, Bush said he did want to pull out American troops from Iraq “as quickly as possible” but didn’t go as far as to agree with outgoing Secretary of State Colin Powell on the date. Powell had previously said U.S. troops could be on their way back home later this year.

According to Bush, the troops ”won’t be leaving until we have completed our mission. And part of the mission is to train Iraqis so they can fight the terrorists.”

Kennedy has been a consistent critic of the Bush administration’s policy in Iraq and vocally opposed the resolution that gave the U.S. president the green light to go into war in Iraq. He further added, it’s “absolutely been a mistake that we went into Iraq, instead of following Osama bin Laden.”

“We cannot continue the way we are continuing” he says “The policy is ridiculous. Iraq is a disaster because it’s the a result of blunder after blunder after blunder. And it is George Bush’s Vietnam.”

Other mistakes committed by Washington and which have contributed to the current situation in Iraq are: not having enough troops for post-war operations, disbanding the Iraqi army, having single source contracts to groups like the politically connected Halliburton, the prisoner abuse scandals at Abu Ghraib, and the US refusal to accept offers by other countries such as Egypt to assist in training Iraqi forces Kennedy said.

The Democrat Senator believes that the U.S. went into Iraq with no concrete plan; rather they go on a day-to-day planning session.

“Finally they have been unable to make up a plan — they’re making it up day by day. Until Iraqis are going to fight for their own country we are going to have a very, very dangerous situation.”

With the upcoming elections in Iraq, Kennedy thinks it comes down to the Iraqi people.

“We have to let the Iraqis make the judgment and the decision about the elections. The United States has been manipulating and making all the calls in terms of Iraq. The Iraqis have to make the judgments.” Adding that neighbouring countries should be called in order to encourage Sunni Iraqis to take part in the electoral process.

“Ultimately, we have to ask ourselves this very basic question. And that is, is the face of the United States part of the liberation and security and the stability in that country, or are we a force that is perceived to be expanding the kind of uncertainty and savagery and revolution that’s taking place there?” he asked.