Kerry's Withdrawal Problem

John Kerry's plan of withdrawing US troops from Iraq six months after he is sworn in as President may sound wonderful to the hundreds of thousands of military families dealing with the daily stresses of having a loved one gone and serving in Iraq or Afghanistan.....but, the problem with that plan is that is sounds hauntingly familiar to what John Kerry has said in the past about troop withdrawal from Vietnam:

Regarding the threat of the Communist North Vietnamese attacking the South Vietnamese should the American forces withdraw immediately from Vietnam, John Kerry said back in April 22, 1971 testimony before Congress:

"I would say to this question of world peace. I think it is bogus, totally artificial. There is no threat. The Communists are not about to take over our Mc Donald's hamburger stands."

Of course, the "threat" that the Communist North Vietnamese posed wasn't so much towards the USA, but towards the poor people of South Vietnam who did not want Communism. It was in the best interest for America that Communism to be thwarted from that region.

No threat, Senator Kerry?

From the book, Reckless Disregard by Robert Patterson:

"The nonexistent threat resulted in 750,000 Vietnamese being forced into Communist "reeducation" camps and more than 130,000 Vietnamese becoming "boat people", fleeing the Communist regime. Laos fell to the North Vietnamese Communists, was subjected to a Stalinist government, and has killed an estimated 100,000 Hmong tribesmen (American allies during the war). The Communist Khmer Rouge conquered Cambodia, killing more than 2 million people in their reign of terror."

MORE THAN TWO MILLION PEOPLE!! After the USA lost 3,000 on September 11, 2001, that number is simply incomprehensible to me.

Do we, as a country, honestly desire our troops to come home so much so that we are willing to totally abandon our allies in Iraq like Spain and the Philippines have done recently? Can we live with ourselves if, by leaving early, we read in the papers or see on TV that millions, MILLIONS, of Iraqis are slaughtered by the terrorists??

John Kerry's plan of withdrawing troops early may appease some here at home....which is what he wants to do....BUT the consequences of that reckless and irresponsible action will be too high. He knows this. He acted to bring the US troops home from Vietnam. He saw the results of those actions. We will be leaving our Iraqi allies to torture, rape, and horrible deaths that we Americans cannot fathom.

As a former Marine wife, I know what it is like to have my husband gone for many months at a time. It hurts. It is so incredibly hard and all you want is for him to come home...no matter what.

I pray that these families will remain strong, hold fast, and stay faithful.

But America has a job to do and we do not want to suffer the consequences we did after pulling out of Vietnam in an irresponsible way.

John Kerry's plan will not work.....and he knows this all too well.