Were their better reasons for the Viet Nam war than the Iraq Invasion?

[trumad]

I contend that there was... My point is...If you opposed the Viet Nam war wouldn't you strongly oppose the current war?

[Media_Lies_Daily]

1. Okay, I'll play...why were we in Vietnam?

[toddzilla]

2. i'm no scholar on the subject..

but it seems to be just as fraudulent as the current occupation is. only there is more profiteering, or at least more visible profiteering.


i really need to read up on vietnam.. any suggestions on a relatively non-biased book?

[LoneStarLiberal]

3. General Roots, Specific Differences

Man, this post could take up a good two or three whole screens. I don't have time to dive into it right now, but here is my beginning: Both wars were fought under the pretext of the urgent need to stem a rising tide of opposing ideology to ours. In the case of Vietnam it was to oppose communism under the pretext of the domino theory. In the case of Iraq, it was to strike a blow against militant Islam and to drain the Middle Eastern swamp (whatever the hell that bunkum means). Now don't flame me over Iraq; I don't think it was for that purpose either. This is an answer according to what it was supposed to be over.

However, we didn't have a Tonkin Gulf incident to spark the Iraq hostilities. We invaded Iraq the same as Iraq invaded Iran, Hitler invaded Poland, and North Korea invaded South Korea. As contrived as the Tonkin Gulf incident more than likely was, it at least provided some sheen of legitimacy to escalating Vietnam. The reason we didn't see a similar incident in Iraq is probably because the war planners and policy makers didn't feel they could get away with it under all the media scrutiny.

[sujan]

6. you're correct

[Media_Lies_Daily]

7. The Bushies used 9/11 as the reason for attacking Iraq...

...on the pretext that Iraq not only was funding Al Qaeda but also supplying them with WMDs.

In fact, Rumsfeld was pushing the attack on Iraq immediately after the collapse of the WTC.

All rightwing crap. If you go back in time, you can find the fingerprints of the same types of rightwingers behind every major war fought by the U. S. after 1812.

[trumad]

9. I would think that communisim was much more a threat

than militant Islam..... MHOP

AND I would think that we had a dozen or so Tonkin Gulf type lies that suckered a whole bunch of folks into voting for the damn war res...again.....MHOP

[magnolia]

4. Go see...

"The Quiet American".

[Cha]

8. Brilliant Flick!

Everyone should "go see the Quiet AMerican"! :kick:

[Old and In the Way]

5. Defeat Godless Communism.

Replaced it with Godless Capitalism. And as more jobs get outsourced to SE Asia, you have to wonder about who ultimately won. Would we have been better off today if we had just let them live in their pre-industrial, agrarian economy?

[Styles]

11. How could anyone tell who won a war?

Regardless of who won, the winner would be considered the "good guy"

If Hitler won WW2, the media would be thanking him from saving us from all the horrible government corruption... but instead, the Allies won, and supposedly we saved Europe from... well... the same thing really... go figure...

[morningglory]

10. Hell, no. Lies as usual.

The rationale was the "dominoe effect". If one country goes commie, then the one next door will go. Endlessly.