How the War on Terror, specifically the fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan compare previous military conflicts?

Question

I am looking for information beyond the similarities to Vietnam.

Answer 1

Vietnam is one thing, but, the War on Terror really isn't a war anymore, now, it's the Aftermath. The US went in and cleared out Iraq in less than three months if you remember. Now, the fighting has picked up since then.

I'm not going to lie to you. The Aftermath in Iraq for everday living for US troops and others alike is similar to being a Nazi consentration camp. Those you get up every morning, regardless of religion pray with their superiors before going out. The way US soldiers and officers have perished there is not far from the way Nazi soldiers killed in WWII.

The mechanisms for warfare there are similar not just to WWII, but captures a many varying types of wars, for instance, as primitive as Iraq is, the insurgents there have not only taken American lives, but, weapons as well. From using our own rocket launchers and weapons against us, to basic, all out ancient fighting with rocks and rods. The footage that has been released, well, if you're in the governmental-private sector you would know what I'm talking about, is to see insurgents and even Iraq civilians just right going up to a soldiers and exploding.

The similarities take on a mess of varying character from the infamous Boer War to WWII and Somalia to the terrible Franco-Prussian War in the late 1800s. In Afghanistan, it's a bit different. This country has been liberated because the US Government had the support of the UN and various other nations before they went in to clean house. Things there were orderly and precise. The war there took less than a month to fight and there were little casualities.

The consequences, however, to the aftermath of Iraq is also beginning to find its way into the Afghanistan regions now. Before we know it, the Iraq Civil War could break out into another whole World War between the Americans, Iraq w/ the support of Iran, and Afghanistan.

Not to mention the conicidences that are also occuring with the economy there and here. With constant money being spent overseas, ($1.3billion) a week to be exact in Iraq, the financial difficulties are being sewn here in the US. Economists have reached far and wide for data that could link this time with The Great Depression. Several times since the new Presidency, the United States has balanced on the beam between two stock market crashes and another oil crisis. Meanwhile, all the political dinners being held for politicians isn't by far assisting our troops overseas with newer and stronger armor. While a politician sits and eats his lobster dinner, a soldier is having shrapnel pulled from the roof of his mouth. While a politician goes out for an evening stroll down through their mansion gates, a US soldier can't even exit his trailer to use the lavatory for fear of having his head blown off. The same thing happened in Vietnam, as it did in WWI, and especially in the US Civil War.

Just look around you, everyday there are similarities to The War on Terror. Not just in war, but in our everday lives.


J.F.

Answer 2

Well, you took away my first comparison (Vietnam - I was there, 1965-66, and I've spent over 20 years in the Middle East.)
But I'd say it also compares well with the Russians in Afghamistan and even with the American Revolution.
Regarding the former example, here's the first paragraph from the link below - an interesting piece, I'd say:

"America's Afghanistan
The best comparison to make for the American adventure in Iraq is not Vietnam, but Afghanistan. And America's future could be most like Russia's in the 1990s
by Kevin Potvin

Answer 3

I don't think it does. You see, in pretty much all previous conflicts there has been a more or less defined foe.

While this 'war' is not new in that it is based around differences in ideology (as opposed to sovereignty, territory, resources or religion), traditionally war is the "armed contention of one or more political units against one another."

Here there is no discrete 'unit' against whom war can be waged. Hence traditional ideas about military campaigns, theatres of war etc rather go out the window.

While initially the focus may have been the political control of Afghanistan or Iraq I believe this no longer applies. In effect the 'war' is more like an ideological struggle for survival between those who believe that a 'Western', democratic, capitalist system is best and those who do not. But unlike the ideological struggle between communism and capitalism this one has, uniquely I think, evolved into a pan-global guerrilla campaign.

Forget Vietnam. Think Heracles vs the hydra.

Answer 4

My civilian mind has difficulty with this. I hope somebody who's been to War College can chime in. This is "fourth generation war" and has been a hot topic among military thinkers since well before Bush came to office. Our foe have an ideologic but not a geographic or necessarily even solid political definition. You'll note that in the midst of this 4th-gen. war we took a short time to fight a classic 2d-gen. war ending in the overthrow of S.H. in Iraq. We're really good at that. This, though, is always going to be long, slow and deadly, and I get the idea that most folks have even more trouble than I do differentiating between the different generations, even if they recognize that there are different ways of war at all.

Answer 5

The is no such thing as a "war on terror" and pretending that there is shows the way words can be twisted to try to influence people's emotions.
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Wars are fought between states. Terror is not a state. Terror is a feeling, and you are responsible for your own feelings.
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The concept of "wars on" things has become meaningless. It started with the "war on Communism" - but Communism is a philosophy, not a state, and you fight philosophies with ideas, not with guns.
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Then Lyndon Johnson gave us the "war on poverty" - another ridiculous concept.
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Next came the "war on drugs" - which makes about as much sense as declaring a war on Wheaties since drugs are commodities and chemicals, not states.
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Finally we have the "war on terror". [Yawn]. A silly attempt to stir up and harness the emotions of the American people, instead of appealing to cold clear-headed reason.
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Answer 6

Well Iraq actually means Vietnam in Arabic....