International
Vietnam war veteran slams President Bush

Washington, Aug. 27 (PTI): A former Democratic lawmaker and disabled Vietnam war veteran has slammed the President George W Bush for using the Vietnam war analogy to justify troops stay in Iraq and said the major lesson of that war was that American military alone cannot solve other's problem.

Former Senator Joseph Maxwell Cleland of Georgia who lost both his legs and an arm in a grenade blast in Vietnam and confined to a wheelchair on Saturday gave the Democratic response to a radio address of the President.

"... President Bush gave a speech comparing the ongoing war in Iraq to the Vietnam War. He used this analogy in his latest plea to the American people for yet more time to continue his war.I know something about the Vietnam War. I know something about the price that was paid for continuing that war long after it was clear we could not succeed," Cleland said by way of response to Bush.

"I know something about years of war failing to produce a stable, secure and democratic country...Fifty-eight thousand young Americans were killed in Vietnam; 350,000 were wounded. I was one of them," he said.

"There are similarities between the war in Iraq and the war in Vietnam. One of the lessons to be learned from Vietnam is that the commitment of American military strength alone cannot solve another country's political weakness. This should be a somber warning to us all to responsibly end the war in Iraq," he said.

"Unfortunately, it appears he (Bush) will continue to argue that, if the American people and the US Congress will just be patient, things will work out," Cleland said.

"But like political leaders during the Vietnam era, this president has a "credibility gap," he said.

International

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