Why is it we killed more of the enemy in Vietnam than they killed of us but we still lost the war in Vietnam?

Question

Now the war supporters are telling me we are killing more of the insurgents in Iraq than they are killing of us. All they have to do is look at the war in Vietnam to see where the Iraq war is going.

Defeat will come to the USA. Already 70% of Americans are against the Iraq war.

Answer 1

If we pull out of Iraq I can promise you we will be attacked again.

The enemies whole premise is that American is a paper tiger that you can give a bloody nose and they will run.

Should we be attacked again what do you propose? That we sit and do nothing? No wait let me guess we should attack only the people directly responsible, and of course the media will have to let the US government know who they feel is responsible right?

Iraq will have to be a success due to the nature of this enemy. Thats what you people who equate this issue to Vietnam do not realize.

This enemy will follow us home despite your "oh they said that in Vietnam" rhetoric.

The Vietnamese didnt want you to die because you went to a different church.

You Stated "Now the war supporters are telling me we are killing more of the insurgents in Iraq than they are killing of us."

That has always been the case in that the US wins militarily overwhelmingly. We lose more troops to auto accidents than in combat. The enemy on the other hand is faced with a completely no win situation at least militarily.

You Stated "Why is it we killed more of the enemy in Vietnam than they killed of us but we still lost the war in Vietnam? "

Your bio indicates that you were in the US Air Force and US Navy during Vietnam, unless you were a pilot I seriously doubt you killed anyone. You more than likely got some cushy desk job and never fired a shot in anger.

Thats why your so vocal about how much you hate the government and the US, you have never had to fight for it, and when you were called to fight for it you managed to get half-way out of it.

You disgust me.

Go report me again.

Answer 2

In Vietnam body counts were grossly inflated - that was how McNamara's war was run - with corporate precision.

It still amazes me when I read the same old ignorant claims that "the anti-war sentiment fueled by the mainstream liberal media" was the reason for the U.S. withdrawal from Vietnam.

"More than any major enemy victory, the shame and horror of My Lai caused the American people to withdraw their support for the war effort."

"By spring 1970 there was no way the war was going to be won unless the Saigon government was unwound and the new crew found itself a South Vietnamese general Vo Nguyen Giap."

The quotes above are not from any mainstream liberal media. All too often I see individuals blaming the media or the anti-war protesters at home, and ALWAYS ignoring the Vietnamese people - North and South. One would think after more than 30 years and all the books/TV shows/movies on the war in Vietnam that the American people could for once recognize that the people of Vietnam were a factor in the war.

Answer 3

We deployed the A Bomb in Japan TWICE in order to make them stop fighting. Something on that order would have been needed to destroy the Vietnamese will to keep on keeping on until they were all dead. We gave up, and for good reason, in Vietnam. We should probably do the same in Iraq, that is LEAVE, and concentrate, as we did during the cold war, on winning the hearts and minds of the people most susceptible to islamic extremist propaganda. It's a tragic fact that what we have done over there so far, in Iraq and afghanistan, has produced many militant enemies for the United States who will never be charmed back over to our side with any volume of pro US propaganda. We lost these people because of our own actions. So its our dumb fault. Bush's fault.

Answer 4

Look who's back! How quickly we forget, and how history repeats itself. The reason we "lost" the Vietnam War is because of anti-war sentiment of the people, which was fueled by the no-holds-barred assault on virtually every aspect of the war by the mainstream liberal media. The news networks of the time cast EVERYTHING about the Vietnam conflict in a negative light, and they had decided long before the U.S. Armed Forces pulled out (long before the Tet Offensive, which was considered a turning point in the war) that Vietnam was an unjust war and victory would never be possible.

Fast forward to today -- Again, the mainstream liberal media is back to its old diatribe, casting every aspect of the war in Iraq in a bad light. Not only that, the mainstream liberal media has been criminally negligent in its reporting of this war. They say we didn't find weapons of mass destruction. WRONG!!! Talk to the people who have actually been to Iraq, like me, who have actually seen over 10,000 canisters of airborne pathogenic biological weapons stockpiled -- that's enough to wipe out the entire population of Iran. They say the Iraqi people don't want us there. WRONG AGAIN!!! The Iraqi people are glad we're there helping to keep the peace because they know the number of civilian casualties would be much higher if our troops weren't there to stem the factional fighting. Finally, the mainstream liberal media says the terrorists that we are seeking are not in Iraq. DEAD WRONG!!! Body count of confirmed al-Qaeda operatives is over 600 now, and that's just the ones the U.S. Armed Forces has killed -- that doesn't take into account the al-Qaeda terrorists that have been captured. The mainstream liberal media has a blatant agenda here, and their agenda is to find something to bash Bush with so the Democrats can put someone in the Oval Office next year. Reporting the actual truth doesn't jibe with their agenda, so instead of trying to refute it they simply ignore it.

It's so sad to see you spewing liberal propaganda, and it's obvious to all of us here who actually use our brains and don't take any supposed fact at face value that you're simply regurgitating what you've seen or heard from your liberal counterparts without bothering to question its veracity. A mind is a terrible thing to waste...

Answer 5

Your right, there is more to the war then killing. The enemy knows they can't beat the US military, but they don't have to, all they have to beat is US public opinion. The nay-sayers are the ones that give them the victory in this type of war. The American people will lose this war for us, just like Vietnam as you point out.

Answer 6

I don't think the win/loss of a war or battle is measured by the most killed/casualties. It is determined by who holds the land or battlefield and who leaves first.

As to Iraq I'll venture a guess that we leave before the insurgents do.

Answer 7

Kill ratios are notoriously unreliable indicators of who wins a fight.

It doesn't matter how many Battles of Fallujah you win, that's evidently not going to inject popularity into what's perceived as an ugly war.

Answer 8

Because of the propaganda victory the Viet Cong achieved that convinced the anti-war lunatics that we couldn't win. By portraying the Tet Offensive, which was a military debacle of the first magnitude for the VC, as a victory, they swayed the people here in the US, destroying our will to continue the fight.

You, of all people, should know this. You claim to be a 'Nam vet, but continue to insist that we were defeated militarily. That never happened. We were defeated POLITICALLY, through the use of propaganda -- the big lie fed to the useful idiots time-and-time-again, such that it got repeated loudly enough to sway the ignorant masses.

And that is what the insurgents are doing today -- using @$$holes like you to repeat the big lie so many times that by parroting their crap.

So STFU, and go find your al-Qaeda/Muslim buddies in the Detroit area and have a toke of ganja with them.

Answer 9

Don't wish to compare but very few see this. Yes we lost many good people in all of our wars. But how many people are hurt killed each Day on our highways. Because of speed, drinking, not knowing how to drive, little stuipe things. But are we changing the laws to help this out or stop it? NO. We make the vehicles safer make more driving laws that are not enforced. I'm not against the war, but lets get real here. Keep it over there not here(darn lot of it is already here) so why did I put in my 20? so some young unappreciative snot nosed kid can thumb there nose at me for their freedom.

Answer 10

War is not about 'body count', it's about who profits. There are no winners in war unless there is a more defined 'enemy' than simply "terrorists".