Iraq, Vietnam, and Lessons Unlearned

George W. Bush, with his daddy's help, was able to avoid combat in Vietnam, but that doesn't mean that he isn't qualified to comment on what we have learned from that war. From a recent AFP article:

US President George W. Bush, making his first visit to Vietnam, said that one lesson of the bloody US military defeat here a generation ago was that the United States must be patient in Iraq. ...

... Asked whether the US defeat in Vietnam offered lessons, the US president replied: "We tend to want there to be instant success in the world, and the task in Iraq is going to take a while."

Perhaps the lesson for you, Mr. President, is that you should stay out of conflicts that don't concern you and refrain from invading sovereign countries that pose no threat to the United States.

The lesson for the rest of us should be to never trust a government that lies us into war. They did it in 1964 and they did it in 2002. Unfortunately, when it comes to history, we Americans are slow learners.