After Bush's Iraq speech, area veterans dispute Vietnam analogy

[unhappycamper]

Mike Heiman, a Marine Corps veteran of Vietnam, says: "I think (Bush) took us to the wrong war and he lied about the reasons we went there."


After Bush's Iraq speech, area veterans dispute Vietnam analogy
By Lou Michel - News Staff Reporter
Updated: 08/23/07 7:48 AM


President Bush’s analogy between a withdrawal from Iraq and what happened in Vietnam more than 30 years ago isn’t finding many sympathetic ears among local veterans.

But a Vietnamese man whose family found a home in Buffalo and two local veterans support the president’s position that a hasty departure could lead to deadly consequences. Even veterans who dislike Bush’s unpopular war see a need for caution.

The remarks, some of them harsh, came in response to Bush’s speech Wednesday in Kansas City, Mo., to members of the Veterans of Foreign War.

“I think he took us to the wrong war and he lied about the reasons we went there. He said it was all about al Qaida, and it wasn’t. Now it is, but they weren’t there until he sent us there,” said Mike Heiman, a 58-year-old Lockport resident who began his 13-month stint in Vietnam as a Marine in 1968. “I think we should get out of there.”

~snip~

But those were kind words compared with what other Buffalo Niagara veterans had to say about the speech.

“He makes me throw up. Here’s the thing: All these past comparisons don’t have any relevancy to the situation today,” said Jerry McDonough, a Korean War Army veteran who took aim at Bush’s efforts to use other Asian wars to make a case for staying in Iraq.


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[rodeodance]

1. so, he was not one of those who 'clapped loudly"

[babylonsister]

2. Recommend for sanity. nt

[BeyondGeography]

3. This is good to see..even has a chicken hawk reference from this veteran

<Stephen T. Banko III, a highly decorated Vietnam War veteran from Buffalo, said Bush’s speech put him in mind of another famous World War II general, George Patton, and the nickname his troops bestowed on him.

“ ‘Blood and Guts´ — his guts, our blood,” Banko said. “That’s exactly what Bush fails to realize. The sacrifice inherent in Vietnam cost us 58,000 American lives, 300,000 Americans seriously wounded, countless others emotionally destroyed, and still after 12 years of fighting alongside the South Vietnamese, they were unable to stand up for themselves.”

How many American lives, Banko asked, will have to be lost until Iraq is stable — if ever?

“The real insult to Vietnam veterans accrues from somebody who didn’t see fit to fight but seems more than capable of defining what our sacrifice was all about,” Banko said. “I have seen too many recent amputees in airports . . . for me to be concerned about anything except getting our troops out of harm’s way.”>

[BOSSHOG]

4. bush is a liar - it rolls so easily off the tongue

And he's lying about life and death matters. Snorting coke and deserting then 35 years later defining what Nam was all about; surely must impress the limbaugh trained trash.