Iraq is no Vietnam - Troop morale high, everything's going great

[midnight armadillo]

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2005/08/25/iraq_is_no_vietnam?mode=PF

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Iraq is no Vietnam

Jeff Jacoby, Aug. 25, 2005

IRAQ WAR skeptics and critics have been invoking Vietnam almost from the day
the fighting began. So Senator Chuck Hagel of Nebraska was hardly breaking new
ground when he joined the invokers on Sunday. ''We are locked into a
bogged-down problem," he said on ABC's ''The Week," ''not . . . dissimilar to
where we were in Vietnam."

...

Yet in so many ways, Iraq doesn't look like Vietnam at all. Vietnam was never
the central battleground of the Cold War, while Iraq has become the focal point
of the war on terrorism. Americans had no reason to feel that their own
security was at risk in Vietnam, whereas 9/11 made it clear that the enemy we
face today poses a lethal threat here at home as well. The jihadis in Iraq
don't have the backing of superpowers; North Vietnam and the Viet Cong were
armed to the teeth by China and the Soviet Union. In South Vietnam, the United
States was allied to an unpopular and incompetent regime; in Iraq, the United
States toppled a brutal tyranny and is trying to nurture a democracy in its
place.

...

But another Vietnam? No -- not when such strong support for the war comes from
the very soldiers who are in harm's way. Their high morale, their faith in
their mission, their conviction that we are doing good -- those are the signals
to heed, not the counsels of despair on the TV talk shows. It will be time to
give up on Iraq when the troops give up on Iraq. So far, there's no sign they
will.


Jacoby is an intellectually lazy right-winger who writes for the Boston Globe who has a habit of playing fast and loose with facts, and who loves BushCo oh-so-much.

[Beaver Tail]

1. AHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

IRAQ HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH 9/11

WHEN WILL THESE FUCKERS GET IT THROUGH THEIR THICK SKULLS

[jojo54]

3. AGREE, AGREE, AGREE!!!!!

"Their" excuse to tie them together is that the insurgency population is high in Iraq, but what they don't say is that it's gotten high only since we invaded the damn country.

Gawd, their MO is such a thin veil, but the freeps devotion and commitment is so strong to the agenda. It makes me sick. :puke:

[geckosfeet]

2. He has forced me to consider canceling my subscription many times.

Thank the Creator that Oliophant is back I have something to look forward to when I read the op eds in the globe now.

But Jacoby makes me sick. He is another RW media whore talking and writing from the WH list of approved strategy points.

[hobbit709]

4. Troop morale high, everything's going great

DO NOT PANIC! EVERYTHING IS UNDER CONTROL...CONTROL...CON-

[Richardo]

5. Is this ignoramus young, illiterate, lazy or just plain stupid?

Vietnam was very much touted as central to the Cold War. That was the central theme for many years. Anyone remember the 'Domino Theory'? We were told over and over again that our security was at risk.

What a moran.

[aden_nak]

6. Hagel: 2 Purple Hears & 1 Bronze Star, Vietnam. --- Jackoby: Never Served.

So, I guess it's about time for Jeff to shut his blaterhing pie hole.

[txaslftist]

7. Same shit, different war...

...We were reading about the great morale in Vietnam right up until Tet, and even afterward. "The troops support the war", "Morale is high", "Our boys are proud to be doing their duty" could have been headlines from any paper from about 1968 to 1971 or 1972.

There is nothing new in this drivel whatsoever.

[txaslftist]

8. self-delete; duplicate post

[teryang]

9. The jihadis don't have the backing of superpowers?

This man is a fool. All regional wars are proxy wars. Support for the war is coming in from the other Asian powers and the entire Islamic world. The Iraqi economy is totally broken. Where do they think the money and the materials for the insurgency is coming from? The American occupation is a strategic and economic threat to all other powers in Asia and a cultural threat aimed at the heart of the Islamic world. Why wouldn't support from the rest of world come in? The major powers in the region and Asia would be DUMB not to support the resistance. Does he think that the rest of the world is dumb or just the American public?

[Betty]

10. jacoby is an idiot

I usually can't make it all the way through one of his bullshit columns. They are so removed from reality they aren't worth the time.