Vietnam again

George Bush today, responding to what was either a screened question or one that came from a loyalist, returned to the topic of Vietnam-Iraq analogies which had led him to a strange pronouncement last year -- that one obstacle in Vietnam was that it was fought by a conscript army that didn't understand the stakes. He perhaps had been warned enough to stay away from that elaboration, but left the thought out there --

A major difference as far as here at home is concerned is that our military is an all-volunteer army, and we need to keep it that way. By the way, the way you keep it that way is to make sure our troops have all they need to do their job, and to make sure their families are happy. (Applause.)

He really should be asked why he thinks this is the case, and why an Army that is close to breaking point at its present troop levels doesn't need the infusion of manpower that a draft would provide -- if winning the war is as important as he says it is.

There is another issue that has clearly been debated within his circle: how to respond to the simple point that the US withdrew from Vietnam without victory, in the face of predictions of a regional implosion if they did so, and yet both countries are probably better off for that decision. All that's changed is that the domino theory now refers to Islamism and not Communism, but the doom-mongering is the same. So here's what they came up with --

I want to remind you that after Vietnam, after we left, the -- millions of people lost their life. The Khmer Rouge, for example, in Cambodia.

That's pretty shaky. Cambodia was destabilized by the US strategy in fighting its futile war in Vietnam* (ask Christopher Hitchens), and when the Khmer Rouge psychopaths finally went too far, it was the Vietnamese who got rid of them. And the US continued to recognize the exiled KR rump as the legitimate government of Cambodia, to the disgust of most of the world. Anyway, speaking of Hitchens, it's especially brazen of Bush to be using Indo-China outcomes as a justification for his Iraq policy, with Henry Kissinger advising him on the latter.

Of course, this came in a Q&AQ session where he also said

As I've told you, on the rug -- the reason I brought up the rug was to not only kind of break the ice, but also to talk about strategic thought.

Don't ask.

UPDATE: More extended thoughts on the Cambodia-Iraq analogy.

* See also this NYT review of Robert Dallek's Nixon and Kissinger book, which makes clear that it was the unnecessary prolonging of the Vietnam war that destabilized Cambodia, not withdrawal.