Are we repeating the mistakes of Vietnam?

I want to share some material from newsman Bob Schieffer’s recent book “Face the Nation”. On page 87 he quotes President Nixon’s chief of staff, H.R. Haldeman commenting to the President on the implications of the printing of the “Pentagon Papers” in the NY Times the day before - “Out of the gobbledygook, comes a very clear thing … you can’t trust the government, you can not believe what they say and you can’t rely on their judgment. And, the implicit infallibility of presidents, which has been an accepted thing in America is badly hurt by this because it shows that people do things the President wants to do even though it is wrong and the President can be wrong.”

The “Pentagon Papers” was a top-secret government document that was released to the press by Daniel Ellsberg, a think tank analyst and a Vietnam veteran, that detailed the decision making process of policy makers in the Kennedy and Johnson administrations who had taken the county to war in Vietnam. The report indicated that time and again, over years of the war, those government officials lied to us. The favorable reports of real progress and achievement were in direct contradiction of the facts and in what they themselves truly knew and believed. We all know the results of that deception.

Sound familiar?

We are constantly hearing conflicting reports of success in Iraq, but all we see are more of our kids and Iraq citizens dieing, enormous amounts of money being spent, no relief from high gasoline prices, and lots of money being made by defense contractors and Exxon. However we see no near end of the war, which has already lasted longer then WW II, in sight! And we really do not have a clear and believable reason for continuing.

The Latest From Late Night Comedians:

Jay Leno: "It's getting pretty nasty out there on the campaign trail. This week, Hillary Clinton referred to Vice President Dick Cheney as Darth Vader. And today, he demanded an apology -- not Dick Cheney, Darth Vader."

Jay Leno: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said, "'There are 300 million people in America with many different points of view.' As opposed to Iran, which has 70 million people who aren't allowed any point of view."

Until next time.

Ben