Opinion: IRAQ: America's new Vietnam?

Opinion: IRAQ: America's new Vietnam?

(EXCERPT) By William Choong

IN THE Vietnam War movie Hamburger Hill, helicopters full of US
soldiers swoop down on the A-Shau Valley in South Vietnam.

The valley leads to the infamous Hill 937 and its attendant slaughter,
which became a combat microcosm of the American experience in Vietnam
- countless deaths marked by a withdrawal.

The 1960s Animals' hit We Gotta Get Out Of This Place plays as the
choppers descend.

Fast forward 34 years to Iraq, and there's an eerie parallel.

The US military claimed to have killed 54 insurgents in the city of
Samarra on Nov 30 in the bloodiest fighting since the war was declared
'over' last May - but the bodies could not be found.

Explaining the discrepancy, US tank sergeant Nicholas Mullen said: 'We
don't stick around.'

Eight months after the fall of Baghdad, it is becoming increasingly
apparent that history tends to repeat itself.

As in the 1990 Gulf War, a small but well-equipped US-led force
thumped the Iraqis in a 21-day blitzkrieg.

Since then, and despite mounting US casualties from guerilla attacks,
there have been major improvements in Iraq - the most significant
being, arguably, the capture of Saddam himself.

A fairly representative interim government has been established, as
well as a reconstruction plan and a food...

U.S. and friendly nation laws prohibit fully reproducing
copyrighted material. In abidance with our laws this report
cannot be provided in its entirety. However, you can read it
in full today, 20 Dec 2003, at the following URL. (COMBINE
the following lines into your web browser.) The
subject/content of this report is not necessarily the
viewpoint of the distributing Library. This report is provided
for your information and discussion.

http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/wor...226242,00.html

---------------------------
Otis Willie
Associate Librarian
The American War Library
http://www.americanwarlibrary.com