Eight Ways in Which The Situation in Iraq Differs from The Vietnam War

[xiphias]

1. The other European power that was involved in Vietnam was France; the other European power involved in Iraq is Great Britian.

2. The difficult-to-fight-in, uncomfortably hot terrain that eats equipment is JUNGLE in Vietnam, and DESERT in Iraq.

3. The letter with the highest Scrabble score is "q" in Iraq, and "v" in Vietnam.

4. We are in Iraq to "fight terrorism," even though there is no real understandable way that being in Iraq fights terrorism; we were in Vietnam to "fight Communisim", even though there is no real understandable way that being in Vietnam would fight Communism.

5. We had actual treaty obligations that gave us an almost-reasonable pretext for being in Vietnam.

6. The neighboring soemwhat-uninvolved country that we wanted to bomb in Vietnam was Cambodia; it's Saudi Arabia in Iraq.

7. The rocket-propelled grenades that the Vietnamese used to attack US convoys were largely made in China; the rocket-propelled grenades that the Iraqis use to attack US convoys are largely made in Russia (I'm actually not certain of either of these, but I THINK this is true. Not sure though.)

8. It took us YEARS to piss off the population of Vietnam as badly as we've already pissed off the Iraqis.

Can anyone else, whose knowlege of the Vietnam war is better than mine, come up with other ways that the situations differ?

Comments

[city-glitter.livejournal.com]

Who cares? Wrong is wrong.

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

I don't disagree, but you may be slightly missing the point of the list. . .

[city-glitter.livejournal.com]

Quite possibly. Enlighten me?

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

Note just how "different" the "differences" I'm listing are. . .

[city-glitter.livejournal.com]

Well, the Scrabble parallel might be kind of iffy...*grin*

[jadasc.livejournal.com]

6. The neighboring soemwhat-uninvolved country that we wanted to bomb in Vietnam was Cambodia; it's Saudi Arabia in Iraq.

Gotta disagree. We don't wanna bomb Saudi Arabia, although based on the reasons declared for being in Iraq we'd be justified in wanting to. It's Iran we wanna bomb. (Despite the fact that there's a growing moderate movement there that's attempting to do naturally what we've been trying to incite all this time.)

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

Good point. So "the country that's actually more-or-less hostile to the country we've invaded that we want to bomb, even though there's a significant population of people in it who are supportive of us in general, is Iran now, and Cambodia then."

Something like that, then?

[jadasc.livejournal.com]

Works for me.

[yehoshua.livejournal.com]

I thought this was Syria's week, and we'd be threatening Iran again next week.

Saddest part is: I'm not sure I'm kidding.

Big huge honking difference.

[sinboy.livejournal.com]

The war in Iraq is being fought by volunteers. The war in Vietnam was fought, in part, by draftees.

Re: volunteers

[shmuelisms.livejournal.com]

FSVO of "volunteer" yes.

While no one is legally forced to serve in the US-Army, a rather large percent of those volunteers, are lower-class [minorities], who not having many options, use the army as a means to "leave the ghetto". Not to mention the ex-convicts who "volunteer" for reduced jail terms, or those convicted who opt to get drafted instead of "doing time". Just look at the faces and names on the CNN list of Casualties, and you tell me - is that is a representative demographic of the general population?

[ I imagine this comment will annoy many. Sorry. ]

Re: volunteers

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

In all honesty, it looks more like the United States than most everything else on the news does.

[elynne.livejournal.com]

Laughing very hard this morning, Sir. :)

[louisedunn.livejournal.com]

as if I needed any more reasons to [heart] you.

[goljerp]

9. The Vietnam war was started by a DEMOCRAT, escalated by another DEMOCRAT, and then ended after a REPUBLICAN was in office for several years. The war in Iraq was started by a REPUBLICAN and will probably continue until a DEMOCRAT is in office.

10. The Vietnam war caused SOME people in Cambodia, Vietnam, and Laos to dislike the US more than they did already; the war in Iraq is causing MANY people in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Yemen, Syria, Oman, and the United Arab Emirates to dislike the US more than they did already.

11. The opposition to the US in Vietnam started with guerilla warfare, took a turn towards conventional warfare with the Tet offensive, and then resumed guerilla attacks. The opposition to the US in Iraq started with some conventional warfare, and then turned towards guerilla warfare.

12. The opposing dictator in the Vietnam war was an American ally during World War II; the opposing dictator in Iraq was an American ally during the cold war.

How'm I doing so far?

[navrins]

13. The Vietnam war is history and pretty much universally seen to have resulted in nothing good; the end result of the Iraq war has yet to be created.

I do like your list.

[nellorat.livejournal.com]

I chuckled throughout, and at #8 I laughed so hard I scared my rat. (That sounds like some kind of weird euphemism, but you know it's not.)

war

[(Anonymous)]

the other thing is then we were under a short sighted texas democratic pseudo-populist politician for whom everything was a media/political decision, now it's a republican

Re: war

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

Also, that in Vietnam, the war actually started under a popular adulterous Democrat, while, in Iraq, we waited until he was out of office.