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September 9, 2004
Larry Korb on Bill O'Reilly last night
Last night I was watching Bill O'Reilly and witnessed the most amazing exchange between him and Larry Korb, a former assistant Secretary of Defense from 1981 to 1985.
Korb told O'Reilly that "If Bush had served in Vietnam he would have understood that we would not have been greeted as liberators."
Really. I'm not making this up.
To his credit, Bill O'Reilly challenged this amazing assertion. The exchange hasn't been posted on the Fox website yet but I wrote it down immediately after I heard it, so I'm pretty close.
O''Reilly pretty much said what I would have said, but gentler: "Uh, Mr Korb, you do realize thet there are many distinguished Vietnam vets who also did not foresee the extent of the insurgency?" He mentioned several Fox news military analysists, such as retired Lt Gen Thomas McInerney and Maj Gen Paul Vallely (both of whom, it should be noted, at least got the invasion of Iraq right. When so many other "experts", such as Gen Clark, were predicting long conventional battles, they saw the regular Iraqi army and even the Republican Guard units would fall quickly).
Korb hemmed and hawed and then pretty much just repeated his earlier charge.
Korb, like so many others, has Vietnamitis. All new American wars must be viewed through the lens of Vietnam. Vietnam is the only war in all of history that matters. All wars must therefore be turned into Vietnam as quickly as possible, and all analysis must begin and end with Vietnam.
While service in Vietnam is to be resected, the idea that serving there gives one special insight into what would happen in Iraq is ridiculous and illogical. As I have demonstrated in an earlier post, there is absolutely no correlation between having military or even combat experience and performance as president.
Posted by Tom at September 9, 2004 11:45 AM
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