moderatelyExcessive

Just a quick note to let you all know that Cambodian papers are having a field day with the President’s recent comments likening the Iraq conflict to the Vietnam War, and arguing that it was the U.S. withdrawal that eventually led to “the boat people” and “the Killing Fields.” Justly, the Cambodian Daily and the Phnom Penh Post spent a minimum of five pages each discussing the blatant distortion of history George and his writers conjured.

Simple facts that have the papers riled:
1) Nixon and Kissinger decided to bomb Cambodia illegally as punishment for remaining neutral in the Vietnam War.
2) The CIA led a military coup against King Sihanouk for this same reason, which then placed ineffective leader Lon Nol (a general in the Cambodian Army) in the primary position of power here. Despite this, the bombings continued.
3) The Khmer Rouge were born out of the frustration of both the continued illegal military campaign against Cambodia by the U.S., and the completely ineffective government formed by Lon Nol.
4) The Khmer Rouge used the continued U.S. bombing campaign to clear and destroy the capitol of Phnom Penh, once the “Pearl of the Orient.” Only by telling the citizenry in Phnom Penh that the U.S. was going to bomb the capitol were the Khmer Rouge able to send the Cambodian people back into the fields to work, were they then able to destroy all of Phnom Penh’s infrastructure, and begin the Cambodian holocaust.

The tones of the articles discussing George’s speech have ranged from angry to incredulous to clear mockery. The odds are that anyone reading this knows that George is prone to speaking out-and-out lies. I fear that the rest of the country might actually believe what he says.