Unfortunately President Bush seems to know less about the nature of the Vietnam war than he does about Iraq. And he doesn’t know enough about Iraq to win or leave. I understand that he may be parroting what Senator McCain is currently saying. Sadly, because I’d like to think that someone with the experiences of Senator McCain would have memory, curiosity and a better capacity to analyze significant past events — the Vietnam War.

Just as President Bush denied the Vietnam experience prior to embarking on the Iraq slog, they now re-write history to justify their continued failure to find the path out of the Iraq, saying that Vietnam taught us how bad things go for an early withdrawal.

Sadly, this means that not only didn’t they Live the Vietnam experience, they never learned it. They don’t have the story correct. They didn’t understand the “moral” of the tale. Worse, they didn’t get the plot, the actors, nor the ending correct. Those mistakes mean that Iraq and the sand trap we are in, will only deepen. The tracks of our treads are grinding deeper and deeper, kicking up nothing but dust.