The Bush machine? why is it Bush is responsible for everything any conservative does? Democrat "leaders" aren't even held responsible for what their staff's actions, or held responsible for their own actions by the voters. The log in your eye lefties

"I applaud a society where people are free to express their opinion," Bush said, in Indonesia. This is a stretch, considering George Bush has never had an original opinion, but Dan Rather, the Dixie Chicks, and Cindy Sheehan and undocumented others don't believe him. Anyone who has had their life, career or creditability destroyed by the Bush Machine for speaking the truth against this regime does not believe him.

The man still doesn't get it. Anyone familiar with the outcome of the Vietnam war kept saying Iraq is another Vietnam, but since Mr Bush had never been there what did he know. He didn't understand how it affected lives, and destroyed families. So his bull-headedness has cost this country thousands in dead and wounded, and billions in American Taxpayer dollars, and our reputation as being a great nation and for what reason? He still doesn't understand that there is no victory in war, only destruction. When you become an invading nation, you pay the price. When do we know enough is to much and the price too high? Stop the madness.

Dear David,
I was born only a few years after the Vietnam War ended, so I am not emotionally connected to that time. However, even during, or even right before the "Shock and Awe" phase of the war, I felt that the war in Iraq was like this generations' Vietnam. I vaguely recall a time I was watching the a press conference on the news, and a reporter from another reporter even made the same analogy. As it turned out, I unfortnately was right.
I hope all of oyu have a safe flight home.

Well looks like Rove and his cohorts are trying desperately to pull the proverbial rabbit out of the hat. Looking forward? Sure are. No matter what they try, a shmuck is a shmuck is a schumck. Paint the clowns face any color you want, fly the flag high as they can, it isn't going to work. Just read the posts below. The sleeping dog is awake and howling. If ya cant beat, than buy em out, right? Not only do we need new faces we criticaly need new ideas. We need real solutions to issues both here and abroad. Health care, education, living wage,immigration, energy, infrastucture upgrades and constitutional ammendments to bring justice and fairness, to all. The media needs to (seriously) function independently which may mean revising our monopoly protection legislation and taking a good look at the F.C.C. and its mandates. Just gets me to see 43 flying around up there with the media in tow, I cant get the picture out of my mind that it looks like a guy taking his dog for a walk. "Be a nice doggy and I will take you for a ride in my nice big shinny new car and you can stick your head out the window and bark at the passing trees. Cmon Greg. You werent born yesterday, sure the trip is significant, its significant for failed domestic and foriegn policies, here, right here at home. Madness is infecting our world yet again. When is an illusion an illusion? When is a distraction a distraction. Following 43's escapades makes me feel like I am in Times Square on New Years eve, all that energy and those bright lights, isnt it great to witness it all. Than I get home and realise my wallet is has been picked. Rove, your a true Gypsy. A real artist of deception. We should give Karl an award. Anyone have any suggestions on a title?

Who can defend Bush? Are you kidding? His OWN people can't even do it.

David, I wish you could ask Mr. Bush if he thinks we should have "stayed the course" in the Vietnam war, since he seems to be fixated on how the US should never abandon the quest for "victory." Vietnam fell to the communists and the rest of Asia did not follow suit and we did not have to fight them in Hawaii. In other words, the lies the warmongers told us were false, and the world did not end with our disengagement.

I'm old enough to remember the way the Johnson and Nixon administrations kept reporting on how the elections in South Vietnam were going to herald the end of the war, how the conflict was going to be "Vietnamized" - that is the South Vietnamese Army was going to take over the fighting from US forces (does this sound familiar?) - and how victory was "just around the corner." I remember how much hardware the Vietnamese were left with when we left (something like the world's sixth largest Air Force?). It was all smoke and mirrors. The South Vietnamese government did not enjoy enough popular support to keep going once we left. Over 50,000 Americans and a million Vietnamese lost their lives, and for what? A stubborn illusion and a pack of lies.

Draw your own comparisons with Iraq. I already have. And ask Mr. Bush how many more billions of dollars and thousands of lives must be spent on his pipe dream. Do we really need a real leader - the next President - to act like an adult and end this madness?

Joe, Philly, PA.

Nope, we can't smell Jack Daniels from here; however, you are exactly right about "a certain Senator from Mass." I have always subscribed to my father's take on that Martha's Vineyard accident: It was the best thing that ever happened to the US. Otherwise, the "Senator" would/could have just skated into the White House based on his family name, with no qualifications.

About my hatred for Bush vs. Vietnam deferments, my husband spent two tours of duty in Vietnam. I somehow feel justified.

David, there are some key parallels between Vietnam and Iraq but Bush just doesn't see them. In both cases we went to war based on faulty premises.

In the case of Vietnam, it was the so-called "Domino Theory" that assumed that all communist countries were united and a threat to the the "free world." They said that if one more country fell under the spell of communism, all of Asia would follow. In fact, North Vietnam and China were not very close as was evident after Hannoi defeated us and took control of South Vietnam. A few other countries, such as Cambodia, fell under communist control but in no way did they represent a threat to us or other free countries in that region, such as Thailand.

In the case of Iraq, we assumed that all Islamic dictatorships represented a united terrorist threat to the U.S. and they would gang up on us with "weapons of mass destruction" starting in Iraq. In reality, Saddam Hussein was probably just as worried as we were about the threat of Al Quaida to his regime and he certainly would have felt threatened by the presence of nuclear weapons in Iran, a country he attacked with poison gas. Given the absence of the WMD's, it's actually feasible that, given the encouragement, Saddam Hussein might have eventually gotten closer to the U.S., much as Kaddafi has in Libya.

The true lesson of Vietnam, and it certainly applies to Iraq, is to do your homework and avoid faulty assumptions before you send young Americans into harm's way.

Part of what David Gregory smelled in his first "deep breath" in Hanoi was the distant scent of those hundreds of MIA's still unaccounted for. That stench will NEVER go away!

I'm sure Bush will be happy to kick back in Texas once his term is over instead of traveling the world collecting millions in speaker fees from enemy nations and tired old failing Socialist countries.
( In my best Bubba voice ) "Yeah America sucks. We should be more like you. Where's my check?"

The fumes from Lynchburg must be heavy in Tullahoma, TN. I love how the Bush hate brings people to exaggerate his geographic deficiencies based off of one mistake. If the same outrage was given towards a mistake by a certain Senator from Mass., we might have crook in Congress.

President Bush finally makes it to Vietnam. The trips he takes (in order to avoid Washington) these days would be laudable if they weren't so laughable. Remember the questions about geography when he was first running for President? At that point, I don't think he had been out of the US, except maybe to Mexico. He knew nothing about where countries were located and who was in charge of them. Fortunately, the pilots of Air Force One know where to fly and a State Department goon stands behind him in receiving lines to whisper names in his ear. He said there are lessons to be learned from our stint in Vietnam. I'd say he learned his lesson well: never serve in a war and grow up to be Commander in Chief.