ANALYSIS-Iraq war again evokes ghosts of Vietnam

[maddezmom]

By Matt Spetalnick

WASHINGTON, Feb 21 (Reuters) - No matter how much the White House dreads it, the Bush administration can't seem to escape the analogy of Iraq as another Vietnam.

The latest echo of that other unpopular war four decades past came from Vice President Dick Cheney, who said on a visit to Japan on Wednesday that the United States wants to finish its mission in Iraq and have its troops "return with honor."

Cheney's words underscored a recent shift in President George W. Bush's stated justification for staying in Iraq -- not so much for the once-vaunted goal of military victory but to avert a nightmare scenario they say would be unleashed should the United States leave.

Bush's increasing emphasis on the threat to U.S. credibility from any retreat from Iraq evokes to some extent the face-saving arguments put forth by the administrations of presidents Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon during the Vietnam war. Nixon, in particular, repeatedly pledged to achieve "peace with honor."

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