Had a Democrat been elected president in 1968 the war would have been over in 1969 with exactly the same result as happened with Nixon.

It was clear that war was lost. What Nixon had going for him was what Bush had - Generals who were willing to prostitute themselves to the political leadership in hopes of promotions. Light at the end of the tunnel, not a civil war, and so on. Disgusting people, and that includes Petraeus, who knew what the war was about, talked a winning game, and trailed down the same old path.

Nixon kept that cash cow going for Halliburton, Bechtel, etc and so on as long as he absolutely could. He was looking at a more and more virulent public and Congress who were shutting off the cash. He couldn't have kept it going much longer.

And, frankly, Obama is backing down the same trail. Whenever he gets out of Iraq, whenever he gets out of Afghanistan, the result will be the same. The only variable is how much money and how many lives is lost. I think he's afraid of those who supply those "contractor" armies, afraid of the CIA and DoD. The congressional-military-industrial complex has won.