2006-06-21 17:01:12 · 14 answers · asked by Anonymous in Politics & Government ➔ Military
Vaguely, yes. I'm not too old, nor too young. I think what you are thinking about is not about the death toll, but rather how we stepped into jungle guerrilla warfare in Vietnam, totally unprepared for what was about to happen. Then, we opened the jungle warfare school, and now we are awesome fighting in the jungle, but again the face of the enemy has changed and now we are fighting a bunch of terrorists, which like in Vietnam are difficult to differentiate between them and the civilian population. We get burned in the press when we fight and burned when we don't, so it is a lose lose proposition and the soldiers are the ones with their back sides on the line. The politicians? not so much. Yes, we do have big guns, but if we blast the crap out of some building, inevitably, we kill someone unintended and it's a vicious press cycle. The two "conflicts" are very different, but there are some vague similarities, that shouldn't be overlooked. I hope one of the similarities doesn't turn out to be the length of time we stay there!
2006-06-21 21:27:09 · answer #1 · answered by localivewire 1 · 1⤊ 1⤋
There are some similarities.
1. most US casualties are suffered from guerrilla attacks.
2, the war was started over false assumptions (Irag-WMDs VietNam-Gulf of Tonkin)
3. US propped up a puppet government
4. friendly natives of US forces were targeted
5. war was initially supported by majority of US population
6. "stay the course" was primary US strategy
However, US involvement in Viet Nam was looked upon at the time as a containment of communism buttressing the dominoe theory. Also, the US vetoed a UN resolution that would have allowed democratic elections in Viet Nam thus dividing the country into a US made civil war. Also, the numbers of US troops deployed and the length of the conflict make Viet Nam a much more bloody fiasco.
2006-06-21 17:43:48 · answer #2 · answered by Weatherman 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Not if you know both about the history of the Vietnam war and the realities of the war in Iraq right now.
The only way this war is reminiscent of Vietnam is how some politicians would prefer to play politics in Washington and (knowingly or not) sabotage the war effort. It is not an accident that documents captured after the death of Zarqawi mimic the talking points of Murtha, Pelosi, & co. Terrorists watch the news and know that if they can hold us off long enough, we will bicker and divide ourselves until we eventually leave just like Vietnam, Beiruit, and Somalia.
2006-06-21 22:42:21 · answer #3 · answered by groovechild2 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
No, not in any way shape or form, except perhaps that the people who are wearing the peace badge like a 1960's retro fashion statement are still using the same tactics, slogans, and banners.
Read any social, political and military analysis of either conflict and you will see that there are NO parralels.
Waymar476 - You make a spurious point about oil. Iraq has been trading its oil cheaply on the international market for years under the U.N oil for food programme. What sense does you point make as nothing has changed since the invasion?
It still goes to France Germany and Russia, its still traded on the market, the U.S doesnt use or need it and its still being pumped in the same volumes.....do you know wnaything about the oil industry are are you just repeating something from rent-a-slogan?
2006-06-21 19:07:28 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Being 50 yrs old, I can honestly say that it does not look anything like Viet Nam. In Viet Nam we lost over 58,000 sweet young Americans & in Iraq, we have lost 2,500 dear Americans. In Viet Nam we had over 153,000 wounded, where in the world do you see any comparison. The terrain was different, the purpose was totally different. Only bitter draftees or young can find any similarties. We watched the news each day & prayed the death toll would be less than 15, now 2 is shocking.
2006-06-21 17:25:56 · answer #5 · answered by Wolfpacker 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
No, and if it does, that is probably because you werent alive during Vietnam. The death toll is nowhere close to what it was in Vietnam for starters. Not even in the same galaxy.
2006-06-21 17:05:29 · answer #6 · answered by bmwdriver11 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
NO. Only the people like Kerry want it to look like that. He didn't want to be in vietnam and did all he could, including getting his arm scraped so he could go home. Big Coward.
2006-06-21 17:35:37 · answer #7 · answered by killowen05 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Not at all; read a book about Vietnam.
2006-06-21 17:04:39 · answer #8 · answered by chicagoan86 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
no this ones about oil and setting up a goverment that would sell oil cheap but it went wrong
2006-06-21 17:20:28 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Only if you squint your eyes and shake your head real fast.
2006-06-21 17:05:31 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋