BBC: Spectre of Vietnam looms over Iraq

[Jack Rabbit]

From the BBC Online
Dated Monday November 3

Spectre of Vietnam looms over Iraq
By Paul Reynolds
BBC News Online world affairs correspondent

These are difficult days for President Bush and comparisons with Vietnam are being made.
The attack on the Chinook helicopter brings back too many bad memories.
Even the doyen of Washington's political correspondents, David Broder of the Washington Post, is now referring to the V word, albeit in the context of quoting someone else.
He reported recently on an event about President Lyndon Johnson, whose career was destroyed by Vietnam.
One speaker, the Harvard historian Ernest May, said that Iraq was "eerily reminiscent" of the early days of Vietnam, adding however that it was not clear whether the "crumbling" in Iraq would be as pervasive as that in South Vietnam.

Read more.

[JohnyCanuck]

1. Iraq Is Not Another Vietnam, It Is Worse

Unlike Vietnam, America has no way out of Iraq without paying a heavy strategic price. Indeed, the American withdrawal from Vietnam was a serious strategic defeat that may have prolonged the cold war, but somehow America learned many lessons from its defeat and went on to defeat communism and become a sole superpower.

In contrast, withdrawing from Iraq prematurely will undermine America's stature in the Middle East as a mobile superpower that can support allies and defeat enemies. Withdrawal from Iraq as a result of mounting and endless casualties will make coming back for future militarily intervention impossible politically.

As the European Union, China and even India, to name a few, prepare to become potential strategic United States competitors in the Middle East in the not so distant future, withdrawal from Iraq without establishing a friendly government will embolden the competition that had challenged the United States throughout the Iraq situation. They will be more than happy to step in if America is driven out of Iraq under the blows of Iraqi insurgents.

There is little disagreement among serious American politicians today that withdrawal from Iraq is really bad for America as a superpower. So, if premature withdrawal is bad strategically, is staying any better? Not really. If the volume and sophistication of the attacks against the Americans improve, as it has been the case over the last six months, then all the Americans can expect is more death, chaos and lawlessness which, in time, will lead to more attacks by neutral Iraqis who have been waiting patiently for the Americans to fulfil their promises of more democracy and less violence.

From an article by By Naseer Alomari published in The Jordan Times

http://www.rense.com/general44/iwaw.htm

[AlabamaYankee]

2. Russia's Afghan War is a better model

I read an article yesterday in which the author cited the Soviet incursion into Afghanistan as a more apropos example. Unfortunately I can't recall the author or the link. The Soviets made a unilateral incursion, against strong world opinion, to gain hegemony over a strongly tribal state with a history of resisting occupying forces. There's no large organized army to oppose such as the NVA; it's all guerilla, although they have some sophisticated weaponry.

Either way, it's a long,ugly road home.