[quote=briansd1]
surveyor, so remind me again who lost Vietnam? And as you said, who did Bin Laden learn the lesson from? Either Nixon or Ford (both Republicans) by my estimation.[/quote]
Let me spell it out for you because frequently I see you having difficulty grasping certain concepts.
As Allan has pointed out many times, the U.S. never lost a military battle. However, many countries and internationalists perceived the U.S. to have lost Vietnam because of the way we left. While there was no doubt of our military prowess, the lesson for many countries was that the U.S. could be beaten.
Enter Somalia. As bin Laden said, hit the nose of the tiger and the tiger runs away. Despite having a vastly superior military, in terms of numbers, equipment, training, and in almost every other way, a much publicized attack and the U.S. runs away. Clinton withdraws all the troops. There are also the attacks on the African embassies. Not much of a response. The bombing of the Cole. “Police action.” All of this behavior points to a country unwilling to take the steps to aggressively defend itself. bin Laden then gets the idea that if he can strike the U.S. deep in its heart, it will eventually withdraw from the middle east and Israel.
Now, do you think bin Laden would have come to this conclusion if we had done a better job at Vietnam? Perhaps, perhaps not.
And let me be clear (using Obama’s favorite words): bin Laden does not see republicans, democrats, liberals, conservatives. He just sees filthy infidels. So you can try to blame Vietnam or other ills on the republicans, or conservatives, but that line of thinking makes no difference to bin Laden.
At least with your questions you seem willing to learn. However, willing to learn and learning are two different things.
