Quote of the Mid-Week

David Gergen, former adviser to Presidents Nixon, Reagan, Daddy Bush, and Clinton on Dumbya's Vietnam/Iraq histamatorical analogy:

"If you learned so much from history, Mr. President, how did you get us involved in another quagmire?"

(h/t to FDL)

Dumbya, Iraq, and Vietnam

Apparently one of the many books Dumbya didn't read (see item below) was a book on the Vietnam War. (Of course, he wouldn't have to read such a book if he'd lived the experience instead of spending the war, thanks to Daddy's influence, snorting coke and skipping out on Air National Guard duty in Alabama.) Dumbya cited Vietnam in a speech today to the Veterans of Foreign Wars to make the case for staying longer in Iraq to avoid what Dumbya said was the fate of millions who suffered or died when we left Vietnam...after 10 years and nearly 60,000 American dead!! Historian Robert Dallek responded best:

"What is Bush suggesting?...We've been in Iraq longer that we fought in World War II. It's a disaster and this is a political attempt to lay the blame for the disaster on his opponents. But the disaster is the consequence of going in, not getting out."

(h/t to the LA Times, via Rising Hegemon)