Strangely, the most striking difference to me is how much more articulate Nixon was. Even though both were prepared speeches and we don't have to listen to Bush's stumbling over words, Nixon sounds educated and Bush doesn't.

Nixon delivered his Vietnamization speech in November 1969, but the last U.S. ground troops didn't leave Vietnam until March 1973. More than 8,000 American soldiers died in the meantime.

And how many hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese, Cambodians, etc.?

- Michael

Bush: "Setting an artificial deadline to withdraw would send a signal to our enemies -- that if they wait long enough, America will cut and run and abandon its friends."

When have the Iraqis been our friends? When we were bombing the hell out of them in 1991 - 2003? When we were embargoing them so it was difficult to feed their families or provide medical needs? When we invaded their country? When we occupied their country? When we set up a puppet government? When thousands of men, women and children have been slaughtered since "Mission Accomplished"? Lots of Iraqis most want for us to go away and leave them alone so they can get on with whatever they want to do to each other and their country. Because of us they now have radical islamic extremists and terrorists entrenched in their country. We may be the kind of "friends" they can do without.

Of course our wingnut friends are convinced that anti-war liberals on the home front lost the war in Vietnam for us and they will surely assign blame similarly with Iraq.

You shsould take that graphic down. Depite the caveat, it's the same kind of "hope you're not reading the fine print" misleading that we need to rail against.

"Nixon delivered his Vietnamization speech in November 1969, but the last U.S. ground troops didn't leave Vietnam until March 1973. More than 8,000 American soldiers died in the meantime."

Let's not forget: Not only were the South Vietnamese security forces not able to "stand up," but last time I looked, there is no longer a South Vietnam at all.

There is a lesson, albeit a bitter one, that can be learned from our Viet Nam experience and which can be usefully applied to Iraq. That lesson is: A civil war that runs its course can, in the long run, have stabilizing geopolitical results.

No matter how long US armed forces remain in Iraq, with our departure it seems assured that the Iraqi factions will fall upon one another for all sorts of reasons, ranging from control of resources to the wish for political autonomy to theological turf warfare to simple revenge and score-settling.

Eventually, after the shedding of a lot of innocent and not-so-innocent Iraqi blood, some kind of political entity will emerge from what once was 'Iraq'. It will not be the tidy democracy Bush holds in his head, but it will be stable.

And it will not be a 'haven for terrorists' such as Iraq is today thanks to our inflammatory presence. Enlightened economic self-interest will see to that. The oil will continue to flow and it will flow to us, paid for in full.

Bring the troops home and let the subsequent civil war run its course.

Hal Beers

Nixon in 1969: "The precipitate withdrawal of American forces from Vietnam would be a disaster not only for South Vietnam but for the United States and for the cause of peace."

Bush yesterday: "Setting an artificial deadline to withdraw would vindicate the terrorists' tactics of beheadings and suicide bombings and mass murder -- and invite new attacks on America."

Nixon: "An announcement of a fixed timetable for our withdrawal would completely remove any incentive for the enemy to negotiate an agreement. They would simply wait until our forces had withdrawn and then move in."

Bush: "Setting an artificial deadline to withdraw would send a signal to our enemies -- that if they wait long enough, America will cut and run and abandon its friends."

Nixon: "If necessary ... we will withdraw all our forces from Vietnam on a schedule in accordance with our program, as the South Vietnamese become strong enough to defend their own freedom."

Bush: "And as the Iraqi security forces stand up, coalition forces can stand down -- and when our mission of defeating the terrorists in Iraq is complete, our troops will return home to a proud nation."

These quotes, expected to sway their readers to the left�s position, illustrate just how much ignorance the left-wing media requires of its audience. The percipience of Nixon's words border on the prophetic. When America did "withdraw forces," it resulted immediately in "mass murder" and a "disaster for the South" as the North moved in and slaughtered two million South Vietnamese. If anything, these quotes should be blasted from every right-wing radio show in the country.