Hooray for John Voight.....

[Excaliber]

It's just a ridiculous argument to say the 'peace movement' resulted in the 'killing fields'. For instance, if we stay in Iraq long enough with no specific results, if enough Americans have died, if the situation proves to be untenable we WILL see a 'peace movement' again. When Americans have 'had enough' they will stand up and be counted. If there is a 'killing field' that results from the country saying, "Get the hell out of Iraq, NOW", then you can point your finger at all those liberals and peace mongers and blame them for the countrys failure. You would be wrong, but you could say that!

It was the COUNTRY that stood up and said 'Get the hell out of Vietnam, we've had enough.' My Dad was a WWII veteran. He was mad as hell at all those 'peace mongers', but even he eventually realized, the country had no choice. We had to leave. The 'will' to carry on the war from it's very BEGINNING was never there from the Government. This wasn't the result of the 'people' saying 'Get out', this was the result of flawed leadership from the beginning to the end. The end result, though tragic, would have taken place regardless of whether we stayed or did not stay. Official "policy" constantly tied the militarys hands, it was, at best, a half assed attempt to fight a war from day one.

...I can't believe I'm being sucked into a Vietnam war debate. The personal cost to myself and family has been horrendous and continues to this day. It was a bad time for the country, a lot of mistakes were made, continuing that conflict was not an option, it had to end.

I don't really want to draw a comparison between Iraq and Vietnam, the goals and needs are substantially different in the current conflict.