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Letter: Vietnam, Iraq parallels growing

Wednesday, July 13, 2005 | 9:18 a.m.

It is nothing less than sad that Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld has pontificated on the possible duration of our troops' stay in Iraq: five to 12 years.

Apparently neither he nor President Bush have learned the brutal lessons of Vietnam -- either that or they have chosen to ignore them. Anyone who is even remotely familiar with the U.S. experience in Vietnam can see the compelling parallels: our invasion for what turned out to be dubious reasons; war with determined insurgents fighting on their own turf, and, finally, the failed effort to arm host-country nationals to defend themselves from the insurgency, Muslims in Iraq and the Vietcong 30 years earlier.

There is one important difference, however, and that is that George Bush had a plan to get out of Vietnam.

JOHN ESPERIAN

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