Bottom looks like up

How bad is the situation in Iraq? Bad enough that Bush no longer fears comparisons to Vietnam.

What Bush said about the lesson of Vietnam is of course gobsmackingly stupid. Olbermann smacked it down in spectacular fashion. But the way in which the Administration seems to be welcoming Vietnam comparisons merits discussion.

At HuffPo, Lawrence O'Donnell gets close to an interesting point. (He also makes what is probably a much more important one about the chickenhawks in the media and pundit classes, and did the same on both Olbermann yesterday and on Scarborough a couple of days ago.) In Rangel Is Right, he supports Charlie Rangel's military draft proposal. O'Donnell points out that

Kissinger says that if we leave now, all hell will break loose and Iraq will never achieve stability. Never mind that all hell has already broken loose. Never mind that Kissinger said the same thing would happen if we left Vietnam--all hell would break loose and Vietnam would never achieve stability. Vietnam has become so stable that Presidents Clinton and Bush, both combat cowards during the Vietnam war, have made well publicized, utterly safe visits to the country Kissinger used to think didn't have a chance without us.

Which brings up an important point: Bush is planning to meet with the Prime Minister of Iraq next week, meeting him ... in Amman, Jordan.

So, to recap: Vietnam, from whence we quit -- stable enough for two U.S. presidents to visit. Iraq, whence Dubya and Henry the K would like us to keep us firmly attached to the flypaper -- so unstable that, despite the presence of 140,000 American troops, such a visit is impossible. So perhaps that fact betrays the reason the Administration is no longer afraid of the Vietnam comparison -- Vietnam looks good by comparison.