http://spectator.org/archives/2013/10/17/obamacare-the-new-vietnam-war/printObamacare: The New Vietnam
By Jeffrey Lord on 10.17.13 @ 6:10AM
Anti-war, civil rights movements a role model.
It was the law.
And liberals were determined to sabotage that law.
To hold America hostage — in the middle of a war no less — until the law was repealed. Until the war was stopped.
To do it, they used the Three C’s.
Civil Disobedience.
The Culture.
The Congress.
Let’s start with the law the Left was determined to overturn.
That would be the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, passed by Congress on August 10,1964 at the request of a popular president, Lyndon B. Johnson. The resolution authorized the president “to take all necessary steps, including the use of armed force, to assist any member or protocol state of the Southeast Asia Collective Defense Treaty requesting assistance in defense of its freedom.”
The vote? 416-0 in the House. And in the Senate? The resolution passed by a margin of 88-2.
The Vietnam War, already quietly humming along with some 16,000 U.S. advisers deployed, was now on. Big Time. And to say the least, the votes in Congress to stop the Vietnam War weren’t there.
In the aftermath of yesterday’s GOP cave to President Obama and the onrushing machinery of Obamacare, this is a moment to look back again on that most reliable of guides: history.
Listening to various Republican critics of Senators Ted Cruz, Mike Lee, and House GOP Reaganites — and yes, Tea Party members are the Reaganites of today — one hears the constant refrain that “the votes aren’t there” to repeal Obamacare. Worse — particularly when coming from people like John McCain, Lindsey Graham, Peter King, and others — is the business about “what is the end game?” The latter refrain particularly appalling coming as it does from members of the GOP Senate and House who have sat in their respective chambers for decades and done nothing — zilch — to put an end to the continuous growth of the federal government and the accompanying, now $17 trillion debt that goes with it.
The votes weren’t there to stop the Vietnam War in 1964. And as was abundantly apparent, supporters of the war had no “end game.” They were terrified of the Chinese — meaning a repeat of the Korean War. If there was an all-out war aimed at total victory, went the thinking, disaster loomed. Instead of an aggressive strategy to win, the “end game” in war — there was effectively no strategy beyond pouring in American troops and trying to drive the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong back into North Vietnam and keep them there. Somehow. And pulling out? Disaster was seen on that front as well.
Meanwhile, opponents of the war had an end game. A strategy that was as simple as it was bold.
End the war.
Period.
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