A Tale of Two Wars - Echoes of Saigon in '67

[BeyondThePale]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/27/AR2005082700035.html

Great analysis and comparison with Vietnam...

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So, what happens if we don't apply that lesson to our Iraq adventure? One of the most senior diplomats at the U.S. embassy in Baghdad told me that what he and his colleagues believed, and what kept them awake at night, was that if the United States is serious about establishing democracy in Iraq, and attempts to do so under current policies, it would take two generations of our soldiers fighting there. That's 40 years.

You may want to pass that along to your grandchildren.
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/27/AR2005082700035.html

[TacticalPeek]

1. Excellent article by an ex-Marine who reported the Vietnam insanity.

snip

What would "winning" in Iraq mean, anyway? A democratic society that's free to elect an anti-American, pro-Iranian, fundamentalist Islamic government? A land of gushing oil wells feeding international oil company profits at U.S. taxpayers' expense? Shiites, Kurds and Sunnis joining hands to end terrorism around the world? Since, in my judgment, we were wrong to go in, I'm afraid there's no good way to get out.

Americans didn't know what "winning" meant in Vietnam, either. Most didn't understand the enemy, its objectives or the lengths to which it was prepared to go to attain them. We had a fuzzy notion of communist "world domination," and the "domino theory" and no realization that what the Vietnamese wanted, south and north, was independence. They didn't want to take over Southeast Asia. They didn't want to invade Los Angeles. They wanted to run their own country. They wanted us out.

Nor do we understand Iraq. The truth -- that Iraq was not a terrorist haven before we invaded, but we're making it into one today -- has been thickly painted over with unending coats of misinformation.

snip

(my bold)

[Solly Mack]

2. Asked recently what he thought of the Iraq war, my soldier hubby said

"I'm just waitng on Saigon"

[TacticalPeek]

3. From today's Meet the Press, four four-stars chatting.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9064938/

GEN. MEIGS: It's very difficult work. That is compounded by the fact that reporters down range have a very difficult time getting out of that Green Zone and getting down into the grass roots of what's going on politically. So the frustration I have as a former soldier is I will talk to people who've just returned from Vietnam. And you saw Chris Matthew's "Hardball" program. There are commanders...

GEN. McCAFFREY: Iraq.

GEN. MEIGS: ...Iraq--there are commanders who believe very strongly that their soldiers have made tremendous progress on the ground in their sectors.

:evilgrin:


Folly, folly, it's all Bush's Folly.

[teknomanzer]

4. Did he really slip an say Vietnam?

That is very, very telling...