Iraq to be a Vietnam: retired general

AUSTRALIA'S involvement in Iraq would end in disaster just like Vietnam, a retired general said today. Major General Alan Stretton said the Government would eventually bow to public pressure and withdraw the troops, leaving behind a bloody mess. Prime Minister John Howard has rejected comparisons with Vietnam, saying such analogies are misplaced. Maj Gen Stretton, who served as chief of staff of the Australian force in Vietnam from 1969-70 but is best remembered for his role heading relief operations in Darwin following Cyclone Tracy in 1974, said there could never be democracy in Iraq.

He said the Government was being irresponsible in sending even more troops.
"I really believe it will go the same way as Vietnam," he told the John Laws radio program on 2UE. "It will get no better – (only) worse – and eventually public opinion in both the US and Australia and elsewhere will demand our troops come back and when they do they will be pretending that the locals can handle it all themselves, and we will just leave a bloody mess."

Prime Minister John Howard this week announced that Australia would send a 450-strong task force to southern Iraq to protect Japanese engineers rebuilding the largely peaceful Al Muthanna province. Mr Howard said Iraq was at "tilting point" following last month's democratic elections.

Maj Gen Stretton said Australia should not have been involved in Iraq in the first place as there were no weapons of mass destruction and no links with al-Qaeda.
"The whole lot of it has turned into a bloody civil war," he said.
"All we are doing is reinforcing disaster. I just cannot understand it."
Maj Gen Stretton said Iraq was already going the way of Vietnam.
"You would have noticed the Prime Minister use a new word ... tilting. That is the same as the graduated response in Vietnam," he said."In other words you just put a bit more in to stop it tilting the wrong way. It will end up exactly the same way. The whole thing is flawed strategy."

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,12356131-29277,00.html

but the warmongers dont.

True, the reasons for invading Iraq were false. But then it was made so much worse by the inept way it was done. They could have followed the advice of Colin Powell and the other experienced military leaders. They could have heeded the wisdom of the Powell doctrine.

But the civilian leadership, who had not personally ever gone to war, decided that they knew best. They accepted the neocon idea of war "on the cheap". And we know the rest of that story. The Powell doctrine was meant to prevent another Vietnam-type war from ever happening again.

If they just HAD to go to war, the least they could have done was to follow the advice of a group of dedicated, experienced Vietnam-veteran military leaders. But no--because of personal annimosity, Cheney and Rummy would never have wanted to give Powell the satisfaction. And that's the way history turns--on little things like that.

The neo-cons have no intention of leaving - not while the energy resources are there for the taking.

The potential for it to be so much worse is there a hundred times over...from inflamed fundamentalism sweeping the Mid East, to genocide between dozens of rival tribes--to possible oil disruptions bringing the American economy down. Yea, I hope it's only as bad as Vietnam, because I fear something far worse could come.

As for Australia--you broke it with us--you buy it with us. Tough shit.