Letter: Vietnam should have taught Bush something

David Wheeless

Monday, Jan. 15, 2007 | 7:17 a.m.

In 1962 President John F. Kennedy sent a couple of thousand military advisers to Vietnam. His successor, Lyndon Johnson, sent a Marine Expeditionary force to Vietnam in March 1965. By April 1965 he raised the troop level to 60,000 and ultimately increased our fighting force to 537,000. Eight million tons of bombs and 537,000 troops proved inadequate to free the Vietnamese. We lost the war, lost 58,000 American lives and wasted hundreds of billions dollars.

Our current commander in chief sent 140,000 troops to free Iraq. He recently sent 10,000 of them to clean up Baghdad, but it did not work. Now, he wants to send 20,000 more. What next? Another 20,000 or 500,000 ?

Apparently he did not get the message. It is time to get out! We cannot afford another major blunder. Two more years of this futile effort will mean at least 2,000 more deaths. Worse yet, another 12,000 of our young people without arms or legs ... and another $200 billion or $300 billion in debt.

It is time to stop the killing and the waste of American resources. Let the Iraqis find their own way.

David Wheeless, Las Vegas