Rules for Bad Analogies, part III

I have to disagree with Senator John Kerry. Responding to the speech on August 30 by President Bush, in which Bush linked Vietnam to our war in Iraq, Kerry said, "invoking the tragedy of Vietnam" was "irresponsible." Kerry was referring to Bush's position, that leaving Iraq to early could have the same disasterous consequences that leaving Vietname did--boat people, reeducation camps, and the killing fields, in Bush's words.

As Contanetti's article in the Weekly Standard points out, Opposition to the war has been using the Vietnam analogy for years.

Rule 5: Once you introduce an analogy, you cannot shift the ground under your opponents feet and disallow it. Engage with their argument or consider perhaps that you may have chosen a "bad analogy".