Opinion of Lyndon Johnson

[minionofmidas]

He botched Vietnam of course. But then again as one of my compatriots said ''Little men make little mistakes. Big men make big mistakes''.

So was Iraq a big mistake or little mistake?

An idiotic one.

Which was a bigger mistake, Vietnam or Iraq?

Vietnam was the bigger mistake. Iraq was the dumber mistake.

Which is in line with the logic of the quote, of course, but is nonetheless just plain objectively true.

[minionofmidas]

How was Iraq dumber than Vietnam? 

Because of the very different circumstances of the decision-taking?
With hindsight, Vietnam was much more... wrong. That's what we agreed on when we said it was the bigger mistake.

[minionofmidas]

How was Iraq dumber than Vietnam? 

Because of the very different circumstances of the decision-taking?
With hindsight, Vietnam was much more... wrong.

Really?  Why?

I'd say Iraq had the oil-to-steal aspect going for it, but Vietnam had the hot hookers for the servicemen in the region (not that the big wigs cared about that).

But politically speaking, at least in Vietnam there was an extant bunch of right-wing thugs (the government of S. Vietnam) who wanted us there...  In Iraq we had to barge in without any excuse whatsoever.

Different definition of "wrong"...