Comparisons to Vietnam escalating as war drags on

WASHINGTON — Another Vietnam? Defenders of President Bush's Iraq war policy have long shrugged off such comparisons. But as the war heads toward the four-year mark and a newly empowered Democratic Congress takes aim at presidential spending for more troops, the comparisons are becoming more frequent.

Despite President Bush's State of the Union appeal for Congress to give his new war strategy a chance, congressional Democrats joined by some Republicans are forging ahead with a resolution opposing Bush's plan to send more troops to Iraq.

Congress has clear constitutional authority to declare war and set spending levels. Yet limiting troops or war spending has never been easy. In Vietnam, it took years.

Nine years after Congress in its Gulf of Tonkin Resolution authorized President Johnson to escalate the Vietnam War, Congress voted in 1973 to cut off remaining funds for combat operations in Southeast Asia. By then, President Nixon had already withdrawn most ground troops.

Nixon was responding as much to terms of the Paris peace accords signed with Hanoi on Jan. 27 as to mounting congressional pressure. In 1975, Congress voted to cut off further financial aid to South Vietnam, helping lead to a final push by North Vietnam and the evacuation of remaining Americans.

Both Johnson, a Democrat, and Nixon, a Republican, dealt with a Congress controlled by solid Democratic majorities.

Current anti-war legislation is headed for possible Senate action next week after the Foreign Relations Committee approved it on Wednesday. The resolution lacks teeth, but it would be a strong signal from the newly Democratic-run Congress of disapproval of Bush's war strategy. Some lawmakers have proposed even stronger legislation that would actually seek to block funds.

"The president understands that people have political concerns," White House spokesman Tony Snow said. "What he has said is, let's give this plan a chance to work."

While the 58,000 U.S. military deaths in Vietnam dwarf the just over 3,000 U.S. casualties so far in Iraq, the financial costs of the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and other military anti-terrorism activities are beginning to rival that spent on Vietnam.

Other similarities:

• Both wars initially had majority support from Americans that evaporated as the war dragged on without clear-cut victories.