Iraq is not VietNam
excellent essay from Michael J. Totten on
Tech Central Station
bq. Iraq Is Analogous to… Iraq
bq. First of all, Iraq is a lot less violent. More than 58,000 Americans were killed in Vietnam. Since the March 19th invasion of Iraq, we've lost fewer than 400. At the rate this is going it will take more than one hundred years before the two wars are comparable.
bq. It's not just a question of scale. Vietnam and Iraq are categorically different animals.
bq. Consider terrain. Not all of Vietnam is covered in triple-canopy jungle. But much of it is, and there is no better place for insurgents to hide.
bq. Most of Iraq is arid and flat. We can track people and movement from outer space. Our satellites can read license plates. We can see in the dark and strike bunkers from hundreds of miles away.
bq. Guerillas and terrorists can hide in cities, but they are widely despised almost everywhere. They are not fish swimming among the people, to use Mao's formulation, as Communist revolutionaries sometimes could. They are more like a snake that eats its own tail.
Micheal also has an excellent blog
here
Posted by DaveH at November 18, 2003 10:39 AM