Why do people state that the Vietnam war is similiar to the Iraq war?

Question

Casualty wise? I always read something such as this on Yahoo answers "Has Bush exceeded the Body Count of Vietnam yet?"

There were over 52,000 American, DEATHS. In Vietnam, why do people try to compare?

I never understood that.

Answer 1

In the first four years of American involvement in Vietnam (1961-1965) there were only 1,864 US troops killed in Vietnam and 7,337 wounded.

In the first four years of American involvement in Iraq (2003-2007) there have been over 3,000 US troops kills and I heard the other day that the wound to death ratio is 9:1, meaning 27,000 US troops have been wounded.

So, there you have it...Iraq is actually WORSE at the four year point. The question is how long will it last???

Answer 2

Because people tend to be analogous thinkers, we like to compare things to previous events. That's why liberals tend to compare Iraq to Vietnam and conservatives compare it to WWII. Both are incorrect. Although I think Iraq is a bad war to be in there are many differences. The main one is that in Vietnam we were fighting against a group with one national identity which had been artificially separated into two states, here we are fighting several waring factions to prevent the break up of one state. Another is that so far most casualties in Iraq have been Iraqi.

Conservatives are wrong to compare Iraq to WWII. Germany was a rising hegemon at the start of WWII, Iraq was a slowly crumbling dictatorship already laid low by the first gulf war.

As for causality rates, I hope they stay as low as they have but remember many times conflicts start out slowly and then escalate. Only time will tell.

Answer 3

Both wars have divided the nation. Both wars were and are essentially unwinable.

I have a friend that just returned from a visit to Vietnam. There they call it the American War.

Answer 4

The Vietnam coast was lined with Shell drilling rigs...We restored Vietnam to favored nation status....All large oilfield service companies have offices in Vietnam...you connect the dots..Oh yeah...Somalia has oil so does Venezuela...wonder who's next.

Answer 5

Why do Americans always talk in terms in "body counts"? It is cold and insensitive and doesn't get to the crux of the matter.

Look it is very easy ( I teach this at school ). The whole thing is a disaster of a quagmire with no solution either politically or militarily. That is the similarity.

Answer 6

civil war, Vietnam-north against south
Iraq- Suny against Shiites

America in the middle with no battle lines

Answer 7

Similarity is the Democrat party was torn apart by the Vietnam conflict. With the Democrats in the majority now and their inability to appeal to all factions of their party, the Iraq conflict will tear them apart once again...

Good indicator of that is when moderate Democrats are being heckled at their swearing in ceremony by Cindy Sheehan...

Answer 8

Well firstly you seem to a victim of US revisionist hostory. There were closer to 70,000 US deaths in Vietnam.

The Vietnam comparison arises because it is essentially the same type of war that the US are facing - a guerrilla war that they simply cannot win, a war which is increasingly unpopular in US, which is pointless, and one which they already know that they will lose. When we stretch put the time frame of this war then we could well see Vietnam type casualty figures.

Answer 9

Death is death by who's reasoning? Whether it is from a grieving single mother to a veterans widow. The death that occurs in our country is to much to fathom, (9/11) are our children dying for a reason or not? There is never a reason.......The 52,000 American deaths do their loved ones think of reason? I think not, just our loss.....Dying for the good of your country does not take the sadness away from Americans that have lost. I am sad.......

Answer 10

It's similar in the fact that they won't let us go out and fight the war, because it might hurt our enemies' feelings.