Republican senator likens Iraq war to Vietnam

By Sue Pleming

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – An influential Republican senator
said on Sunday the longer the United States stayed bogged down
in Iraq, the more the conflict looked like another Vietnam War.

“What I think the White House does not yet understand and
some of my colleagues, is the dam has broken on this (Iraq)
policy,” said Nebraska Sen. Chuck Hagel, a senior member of the
Foreign Relations Committee and possible presidential candidate
in 2008.

A decorated Vietnam War veteran, Hagel also said the war in
Iraq had further destabilized the Middle East and the White
House needed to find an exit strategy for Iraq.

Hagel’s comments on ABC’s “This Week,” coincide with
President George W. Bush’s new offensive to counter growing
public discontent over U.S. involvement in Iraq and calls for a
pull-out date.

The White House rejected Hagel’s remarks and said it was
essential the United States complete its mission in Iraq.

“The president knows a free and democratic Iraq will help
transform a dangerous region and lay the foundation of peace
for our children and grandchildren,” White House spokesman
Trent Duffy said in Crawford, Texas.

“Our policies of the past only allowed the Middle East to
become a terrorist breeding ground,” he said. “Quitting now
wouldn’t help anyone except terrorist killers, who certainly
aren’t quitting their efforts to target innocent people.”

Bush is taking his message on the road this week when he
will invoke the September 11, 2001, attacks to contend that the
United States must stay the course in Iraq.

But the public is showing more discontent with Bush’s
handling of Iraq, with high-profile protests during his Texas
ranch vacation and new poll results showing growing concern
over the outcome of the war.

Hagel said there were growing similarities between Iraq and
U.S. involvement in Vietnam and he predicted the longer the
United States stayed in Iraq the more unpopular it would
become.

“We are locked into a bogged down problem not unsimilar or
dissimilar to where we were in Vietnam. The longer we stay the
more problems we are going to have,” he said.

OTHERS DISAGREE

Republican Sen. George Allen of Virginia, speaking on the
same program, strongly disagreed with Hagel’s assessment and
said there were huge differences between Iraq and Vietnam.

Allen backed the president’s view that the Iraq war, which
began in March 2003, was a focal point in America’s war on
terrorism after the 2001 attacks on New York and Washington.

“It is absolutely essential that we win it. We cannot tuck
tail and run (from Iraq). We have to prevail. We must win. If
we lose, that will destabilize the Middle East,” said Allen.

Democratic Sen. Russ Feingold of Wisconsin broke ranks with
many of his colleagues this week and called for a December 2006
deadline to withdraw from Iraq, arguing this would take the
wind out of the sails of the insurgency.

In an interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Feingold said
if a target date was not set the American public would become
more and more disillusioned.

“The president is not telling us the time frame … what’s
happening is that the American public is despairing of the
situation,” said Feingold. “I felt it was time to put on the
table an idea and break the taboo,” he added.

But fellow Democrat Bill Richardson, the governor of New
Mexico, disagreed and said a fixed timetable was not needed.

“The senator (Feingold) is understandably frustrated, like
all America is. What we need in Iraq is either a strategy to
win or a strategy to get out,” he told ABC.

Feingold and Allen are also on the Foreign Relations
Committee.

Hagel also did not back Feingold’s approach but he said
there needed to be a clearer strategy from the White House.

“I don’t know how many more casualties we’re going to take.
We’re spending a billion dollars a week now (in Iraq),” said
Hagel.

More than 1,800 U.S. troops have been killed in Iraq and
thousands more have been wounded.

“We should start figuring out how we get out of there. But
with this understanding, we cannot leave a vacuum that further
destabilizes the Middle East,” said Hagel.