Unhappy 10th Anniversary, Iraq War - and the Nixon Tie-In

This is the 10th anniversary of the start of the glorious neo-con Iraq war of choice, a war that cost this nation over 4,000 lives,  over 32,000 wounded,  and over $800 billion, costs we will continue to pay for years to come.  And then there are the staggering costs of the war to the Iraqi people.  The war's architects -- Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, etc. --  and the hallelujah chorus on the right and in the media have never been called to account in the manner they should have =cough = prison= cough= for the lives and treasure lost in this manufactured war;  after all, there were so many with blood on their hands and we are a nation looking forward, right?

So, what does Richard Nixon have to do with this (after all, he died years before, in 1994).  Well, what is now being reported of Nixon's role at a critical stage of the Vietnam War reminds us that these two Rethuglican presidents -- "patriots" Bush and Nixon -- would not let the truth, morality or the best interests of the United States interfere with their ambition:

"By the time of the election in November 1968, LBJ had evidence Nixon had sabotaged the Vietnam war peace talks - or, as he put it, that Nixon was guilty of treason and had "blood on his hands". [snip]


It begins in the summer of 1968. Nixon feared a breakthrough at the Paris Peace talks designed to find a negotiated settlement to the Vietnam war, and he knew this would derail his campaign.  He therefore set up a clandestine back-channel involving Anna Chennault, a senior campaign adviser.

At a July meeting in Nixon's New York apartment, the South Vietnamese ambassador was told Chennault represented Nixon and spoke for the campaign. If any message needed to be passed to the South Vietnamese president, Nguyen Van Thieu, it would come via Chennault.

In late October 1968 there were major concessions from Hanoi which promised to allow meaningful talks to get underway in Paris - concessions that would justify Johnson calling for a complete bombing halt of North Vietnam. This was exactly what Nixon feared.

 

Chennault was despatched to the South Vietnamese embassy with a clear message: the South Vietnamese government should withdraw from the talks, refuse to deal with Johnson, and if Nixon was elected, they would get a much better deal."

Which, of course, the South Vietnamese did.  So, as many as 22,000 Americans died in Vietnam following 1968 (including our cousin) because Nixon -- God damn him -- didn't want the peace talks to end the fighting before the election, because that might have led to Hubert Humphrey being elected.  And the war dragged on for another 5 years.

In summary, we have two "patriotic" Rethuglican presidents (are there any other kind?) who needlessly spilled the blood and treasure of the United States, and the people of Vietnam and Iraq, for ...what?

(h/t Mr. Pierce)