Bush's War Mistakes

Here's a list of President Bush's top 10 Vietnam war mistakes as presented by consortiumnews.com:

1. Underestimating the enemy.


2. Deceiving the American public about how badly the war is going.


3. The Bush administration, like the Johnson and Nixon administrations, blames the media’s negative coverage for plunging popular support of the war.


4. Artificial government statistics cannot be used to measure progress in a counterinsurgency war.


5. The initial excessive use of force in counterinsurgency warfare instead of a plan to win hearts and minds.


6. Failed “search and destroy” tactics belatedly gave way to the “inkblot” approach of clearing and holding ground.


7. “Iraqization” of the war parallels the unsuccessful “Vietnamization” in the 1970s.


8. As in Vietnam, there has been no “date certain” for withdrawal of U.S. forces.


9. Retention of incompetent policymakers.


10. Most important of all, starting a war with another country for concocted reasons, which did not hold up under scrutiny.

Be sure to read the full article for the details. It's worth the trip.