2008 Polls National Iowa New Hampshire General Election GOP | Dem GOP | Dem GOP | Dem Head-to-Head

---

January 27, 2007

Hot Story: Slippery Slope in Iraq

Beltway Boys

FRED BARNES, "WEEKLY STANDARD": Coming up on "The Beltway Boys," you've heard the comparisons, but is Iraq really turning into another Vietnam? We'll take a closer look.

MORT KONDRACKE, "ROLL CALL": We know President Bush's Iraq plan is DOA on Capitol Hill. But there are new signs his domestic agenda may be, too.

BARNES: John Kerry exits, stage left, while Hollywood hedges its bets on Hillary.

KONDRACKE: And Dick Cheney catches some not-so-friendly fire from fellow Republicans.

BARNES: That's all coming up on "The Beltway Boys," right after the headlines.

(NEWSBREAK)

BARNES: I'm Fred Barnes.

KONDRACKE: And I'm Mort Kondracke, and we're "The Beltway Boys."

Well, the "Hot Story" is "Slippery Slope." And I'm talking about the parallels between Vietnam and Iraq. And they are terrifying to contemplate, actually.

We are revisiting the - the - the Vietnam history, and we're going to do a little capsule here of - of the parallels, because they - because they descend, and they descend into - into disaster, I have to say.

Step one in the Vietnam in the Vietnam analogy is that the war goes poorly. And in the beginning, up to 1968, the war did go badly in - in - in Vietnam. And the - gradually, the press and the - the public began to see it as - as a - as a failure. However, in 1968, we changed commanders, as we're changing commanders now. Creighton Abrams became the - the U.S. commander, much as David Petraeus is now. When Richard Nixon took over, he transferred responsibility over to the - to the Vietnamese, and they actually won battles. However, it was portrayed in the press as a - as one loss after another. And the public - and the - and the Congress believed Vietnam was a loser, and so it became a loser.

BARNES: You know, I - I - I agree, Mort. I think the similarities between Vietnam and what we're seeing in Iraq now - the - the domestic response here in the United States, they really are remarkably similar. You've had - what's the precipitating in Vietnam that had - rather, in Iraq, that has caused this. You had the golden dome being bombed in Samarra, but then, you know, this violence and chaos, it's increased so much in Baghdad, and this is really encouraged an - an anti-war movement in the United States.

And of course, inevitably, what happens? Jane Fonda is in Washington this weekend to protest the war. And she was rather famous I would say for her demonstrations against the war in Vietnam.

KONDRACKE: Exactly so.

So step - step two was that politicians started a blame game. Some of them blamed the American government; some of them blamed the government that we were defending. And the parallel is here in the statements from Hillary Clinton and George Voinovich.

You watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. HILLARY CLINTON (D), NEW YORK: I would never cut money for our troops when they're in harm's way. But I sure would threaten to cut money for the Iraqi troops and for the security for the Iraqi leadership. I don't know how else to get their attention.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. GEORGE VOINOVICH (R), OHIO: We have serious concern about the policy of this administration, and that many of us feel you are not listening. You are not listening.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KONDRACKE: Yes. Well - now you have to admit that after - when it comes to the Maliki government in Iraq, it's not just the - the doves who are critical, but the administration is, too. And the - the Maliki government's got to step up, or this whole thing is going to collapse.

BARNES: Look, I agree. You know, Maliki is not a great wartime leader. He's not FDR or somebody like that. He's not Churchill.

But - but compared to what? I mean, compared to Saddam Hussein, who he replaced? I'd rather have Maliki there, for sure. And he is a democrat - democratically elected leader of Iraq.

Now, you know, he has done some good things recently. In the past, you know, he - he - he really talked a great game, and - and didn't walk the walk. But a couple of things he's done, of course, Mort, are one, he has actually unleashed the Iraq army to move against the Mahdi Army and Muqtada al-Sadr - you know, the anti-American Muslim cleric who has great ties with the Iranians. And he's moved against them. And Sadr is I think terrified now. He sent his 30 members of the parliament to go back to the parliament. They were boycotting it.

And so he - he is - and - and he's demanding that an oil - the oil law - you know, sharing the revenues for oil, finally get passed and so on. So I think he's starting to walk the walk now, and that's important.

KONDRACKE: OK.

Step three in the - in the process to disaster was that Congress began passing resolutions and holding hearings criticizing the war. And that's the stage that we're at right now, with Joe Biden and John Warner coming up with these - with these resolutions against the president's so- called escalation. By the way, "escalation" is a - is a - is a Vietnam word.

BARNES: It sure is.

KONDRACKE: But the thing is that they didn't stop there. They - they - once the - the various presidents didn't do exactly as they wanted, they went beyond that to tie the president's hands and to fund cutoffs. And this is where the slippery slope comes in.

And all you have to do is listen to Joe - what Joe Biden said this week, and you'll see where things are headed. Watch/

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOE BIDEN (D), DELAWARE: Unless the president demonstrates very quickly that he is unlikely to continue down the road he's on, this will be only the first step in this committee.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KONDRACKE: Yes.

BARNES: That is ominous.

KONDRACKE: Yes.

BARNES: And - and I think we know which - where he's heading. It really is a slippery slope.

Now look, Senator Biden - and I think most of those critics in the Senate and the House and even around the country - of - of the war in Iraq, don't think that victory is possible.

President Bush disagrees with that. Watch this, from the State of the Union.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Ladies and gentlemen, on this day, at this hour, it is still within our power to shape the outcome of this battle. Let us find our resolve and turn events toward victory.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BARNES: That of course was from last Tuesday's State of the Union address by - by President Bush, who seemed to be energized in the part of the speech - I think you said this at the time, Mort - energized when talking about the Iraq part and the war on terrorism, when his domestic agenda - when he was talking about that. Wasn't quite as worked up.

And look, the truth is, you have - as you mentioned, you - you have a new general, Petraeus, and a new strategy, counterinsurgency, that's worked before. Actually, it was basically the Abrams strategy in Vietnam that worked.

KONDRACKE: Counterinsurgency.

BARNES: Yes, counterinsurgency. That's what it was.

And the president met with Petraeus yesterday, Friday, and - and - and - and said, Look, you got to give this guy's plan a chance to work.

Watch the president.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BUSH: I know there is skepticism and pessimism, and that they are - some are commending a plan before it's even had a chance to work. And they have a obligation and a serious responsibility therefore to put up their own plan as to what would work.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KONDRACKE: Well, step four in the Vietnam history was a troop withdrawal. The Congress and the public basically forced Richard Nixon to "Vietnamize," which was to say, turn over the - the military burden to the Vietnamese. And it worked. And they did it an orderly way. It took - it took a four-year process, but the - the South Vietnamese army, and actually fought battles against the North Vietnamese, and actually won.

But the media reported it every - failed to report any victories, and only reported what was bad about what - what was happening. And the public just turned away and - and lost interest, and was against - continued to be against the war. And - and the bottom began to drop it.

BARNES: Yes, well, right now, they're not - it's only kind of fringe - fringe people who are - in Congress who are calling for actual troop cuts. Most of the efforts are - are to block the president from sending this new contingent of 21,500 troops that are needed to secure Baghdad. And - and so on.

I think though this is a slippery slope we're talking about though. You know, now they're - they're for blocking the surge. Pretty soon, they'll be for actual troop cuts. It sounds like Senator Russ Feingold is already for that. And - and I fear there are going to be a lot more.

KONDRACKE: Yes.

Step five was that Congress cut off funding for the war. And this was done on a bipartisan basis. It was John Sherman, Cooper and Mark Hatfield and Clifford Case, Republicans, that - that - who resemble the John Warners and Chuck Hagels of - of this - of this particular time. And ultimately, they - they cut off any U.S. military assistance to the South Vietnamese, and the result was, finally, a collapse.

BARNES: Here's the other thing they did: they - and - and you were suggesting it - that they ignored the success that was going on in Vietnam. They ignored it, as if it wasn't happening.

What I'm afraid is, this anti-war leaders - and - and they're a majority, the anti-war people seem to be majority in both the Senate and the House - will not acknowledge success if it's achieved by General Petraeus and his counterinsurgency strategy in Baghdad, and then in Anbar Province. They'll just go right ahead, sliding down this slippery slope toward a fund cutoff.

KONDRACKE: Yes.

BARNES: And - and we know where that'll lead us.

KONDRACKE: Well, step six was a collapse. And I remember, April 29, 1975, when Congress refused President Ford's urgent appeal to give military - emergency military to the South Vietnamese. That's the moment I stopped being a liberal: when the United States refused to try to save an ally in its moment of - of maximum danger.

And what happened afterwards was - it - the United States was hurt in the eyes of the world by - by the loss in Vietnam. And it - and the - the Soviets were encouraged to invade Afghanistan, and Jimmy Carter cut the military budget and shredded the intelligence community and all of that stuff.

This will be infinitely worse. You'll have the Sunnis looking at the - at the Iranians, a nuclear-armed Iran, and going nuclear themselves. You're going to have ethnic warfare in the - in the region. The United States' reputation in the world is going to be - is going to be rock bottom. And some - some Democratic president may have to pick up the pieces.

BARNES: I remember that day Vietnam fell as well, Mort. I mean, that - that's the day you stopped being a liberal; that's the day I became a conservative.

You know what I thought of? I had actually read some Whitaker Chambers. You know, "Witness," and he was the great communist who became an anti-communist. And he talked about, in one of his books, the great nightfall.

Well, that's what fell over Vietnam. And it can happen again, in Iraq. That's what I fear.

---

Sponsored Links

About Us | Contact | Advertise | Privacy Policy         © RealClearPolitics 2006