| Didn't fight Vietnam to win?? We dropped more ordinance on Vietnam than was dropped by all countries in all of WWII. We had assassination teams take out thousands of suspected VC and VC sympathizers. We used persistent herbicides to defoliate much of Vietnam's forests. Over a million people died. The idea that we didn't fight to win reminds me of what PeeWee Herman said after going over the handlebars of his bike and rolling summersaults: "I meant to do that." America is a superpower, but has limited military strength, especially in close quarters. "Didn't really try" is a rationalization to explain our loss. It is the rationalization of those who won't face the facts that our power to control other people is limited.
Vietnam saw 500 US dead per week, but not at the begining. In a side by side comparison, the losses in Iraq are outpacing those in Vietnam for the first two years. But a direct comparison is not very useful - we waded into Vietnam, while we made a more calculated entry into Iraq.
Navy Seal tactics may have been effective, but special forces can only play a limited role. By definition, special forces are composed of extraordinary men on unusual missions.
On the original question. I think Iraq is more like Lebanon, but it isn't clear how things will play out. There are some indications that a US pull out is being planned. The most significant thing about Iraq is the failure of the vision put forth by neoconservatives in the Project for a New American Century (including V.P. Cheney, Wolfowitz, Abrams, Rumsfeld, Bauer, Bennett and Forbes). Their plans to use military intervention to reshape the Middle East and the world have failed. The US has stretched its military to the limits in the first stage of the plan, and their theories on the ability to wage hi-tech war with very small forces have been shown to be unrealistic. Occupying Iraq will take more troops than are available, and planned action against Syria and Iran would require a military draft. There may be precision bombing of Iran's nuclear facilities, but their grand plan isn't going to work. |