Wars in Iraq and Vietnam?

Question

Do you think that the wars in Iraq and Vietnam being the most publicised wars and that they are the most contraversial wars are corresponding? I think that before visual media became mainstream, people had the idea that war was pretty and glorious, mostly due to movies and books. Now that people actually saw the sacrifices and hardships war causes they are against that war. does anyone else have an opinion an this topic?

Answer 1

ithink they should never have sent troops over there just drop bombs like in japan

Answer 2

Well, one of the other problems with Iraq and Vietnam was the rhetoric from Washington never ever seemed in sync with the situation on the ground. There was always "light at the end of the tunnel" or "we are turning the corner." When faced with images that proved that Washington was either lying or drunk (See last throes of the insurgency) the public lost confidence in said war.

Contrast this with World War II. Yes, there was censorship. But the idea that America (and the Brits and the Canadians) had to make great sacrifice was something trumpeted from the start. There were also clear objectives (Unconditional Surrender of the Axis) that remained (mostly) unchanged throughout the war. People under that circumstance knew what was at stake and had an idea what the Allies were fighting for and what they were trying to accomplish.

Answer 3

Most publicized? Hell, no! Most propagandized, definitely. As for people thinking that war was "pretty and glorious", that just isn't true.

For most of us who lived through the times of World War II and the Korean War (conflict, police action?), war was intensely personal. Walking to school I saw over a dozen blue star flags in windows along the way, and I remember two gold star flags. We all had friends and family in the war and knew the killed or wounded.

I remember rationing. Sugar and tires and gas were rationed. Gas was fifteen cents a gallon but you just couldn't get any. We read Ernie Pyle's dispatches from the front Talk about being an "embedded" reporter!

Korea was a muddy, frozen hell. If you couldn't grasp that from the newspaper reports, you could ask your uncle or cousin about it.

War was neither pretty or glorious. Hollywood's movies were made mostly as patriotic propaganda during the war, with a measure of romance thrown in.

Then we got the Vietnam War with TV coverage on the six o'clock news, along with the often slanted commentary of the reporter or the network news anchor. Now we are getting another dose of the same from Iraq. Are we better informed and able to make unbiased decisions about the war? Maybe. Maybe not.

Answer 4

The difference I believe is both Iraq and Vietnam were very divisive, but Iraq more so, in my opinion because Vietnam was not over oil! If the military in Iraq were fighting the N Vietnamese Army instead of the Iraqi Army things would be a lot different there as well.

We had booby traps and trip wires and mines, which they now generally call IED's in Iraq! It also was not uncommon to be in one of their scooters that they used to bring you to town with, to have someone toss a grenade in the back.

WWII we were attacked by the Japanese and Germany was trying to take over the world, Ronald Reagan, John Wayne and several other actors were putting out as many pro army-America films as they could.

The country was behind you then and they had ticker tape parades, In WWI they used to give military land when they returned!

There have been other unpopular wars like the Mexican-American war that President Polk started, taking over Texas!

Many in the US never got a body back in WWI and II. Many are still buried in Europe. The death rate among the wounded, even in Vietnam, was much higher than it is today. They are saving kids who would not be alive if it were Vietnam.

Answer 5

I have an opinion. Since the 60's when modern liberalism was born, hippies protested war because they were peaceniks. Now, those same hippies have grown up and entered into politics as democrats and still are talking the same old 60's crap because they have no answers to the worlds problems except to set around and sing kum-bah-ya at peace rallies.

War is gory. It is hard and we need hard men to fight them. Without those hard men putting it all on the line so that liberal ex-hippies can have the right to protest, we would be a communist nation or a nation of islam with NO freedom to protest.

The newsmedia being embedded with the troops has been the worst thing ever because most of them are dyed in the wool liberals who want to make the US military look bad to appease the peaceniks back in the states. They are well skilled in how to shoot video to make the soldier look like a blood thirsty homicidal manic. Soldiers in war kill the enemy, that is what they are trained to do.

So, to all you liberal America haters, thank a soldier the next time you get to publicly slam our country because they die to give you that right. If we were an islamic country and you tried to protest, your head might get lopped off. That is what islamic governments do.

Answer 6

In many ways before the press changed sides we were winning Vietnam. The press & the democrats could cause us to lose this war as well. As long as the press wishes the US to lose there is a good chance we will.

The press & the democrats should ask themselves what will losing cost? Do they want to live in that world? I was against Vietnam not because trying to help the Vietnamese was a bad goal, but both the press & the politicians said you aren't allowed to win. A draw is a lose; we proved it in Vietnam.

I remember in 1 movie one of the famous acts said the reason he was in the war was he never felt more alive than when he was so close to death.

Answer 7

History is most commonly written by the victors, unfortunately history is now re-written by the media and power hungry politicians, who paint the war in whgatever shades they like to paint. Just recently how much press did the media give to the story about the 7 soldiers who purportatedly shot an unarmed Iraqi and tried to cover it up vs. the story about the 2 soldiers butchered by terrorists, literally cut up in pieces while still alive, gutted and disfigured so much so that they had to use DNA testing to identify them? Hummm, kinda one sided. They also don't like to make specific comparisons only generalizations like Vietnam, although factually not even close in any comparison but generally like casualies of war, in Vietnam and Korea we would typically lose some 10,000 troops a week, compared to 2,500 troops in BOTH Afganistan and Iraq in 3 1/2 years! Do your own research, think for yourself. Unlike media not reporting there were even protestors before and during WW II.

Answer 8

I don't know what movies that you watched that ever gave you the impression that war was either "pretty or glorious".
Do you even have a clue what all war entails and how devastating it is on both sides, on a personal level. You should apologize right now to all the enlisted who are visiting this site, while trying to get a little R & R while deployed.

Answer 9

theres always been exposure to the war truth,, just the ones promoting the war got behind the hype and propaganda ,, in the civil war sketch artiasts and matthew brady published crowds of dead in the thousands on the ground and folks saw the dead in the front yards,, and in the war in europe folks came home maimed all the time and telgraph and radios told about the dead my uncle was a sniper and came home in 1919 a gas victim and n that didnt stop us from going to war again in 2 and being killed and damaged and the folks had news reels and viet nam we saw the dead with our swanson in front of the tv and it wasnt pretty at all and the morass of this war is a bad concept and a bad plan by politicians like viet nam they needed to give powers to the generals to go in and win whatever the costs instead of rules of ingagement let them detroy any opposeing force we got lamer and lamer in nam, and turned the population against us and we did it again in iraq all sides hate us for not leaving and in nam it was the rubber for the control of it and in iraq it was the oil pipeline

Answer 10

deep, yeh. watch old nam interviews with students & soldiers. compare it to what is said about these wars. same perspectives, same words. can we realize the lies? havent yet, 1000s of years.