IRAQ: Vietnam replayed

IRAQ: Vietnam replayed

(EXCERPT) BY DOUG LORIMER

“It is not Vietnam, and there is no way you can make the comparison”,
Lieutenant-General Ricardo Sanchez, the top US general in Iraq,
snapped at a reporter during a November 11 Pentagon press briefing in
Baghdad. The reporter had asked Sanchez whether the war in Iraq
resembled the early days of the US war in Vietnam.

While the White House and Pentagon brass desperately want to avoid the
US people drawing any such comparisons, with US troops dying every day
at the hands of guerrillas who clearly have popular backing, more and
more Americans are coming to realise that the war in Iraq is a replay
of the Vietnam War.

In a November 16 article on the parallels between the two wars, Troy
Moon, a reporter for the Florida-based Pensacola News Journal,
observed that on the surface, the differences between the two wars
“are vast: jungle warfare versus urban fighting, the amount of time
invested in each conflict, the number of casualties. In Vietnam,
58,000 Americans died in a nine-year period. In Iraq, more than 400 US
troops — and growing — have died since the invasion of Iraq eight
months ago...

“Others say that the parallels cannot be ignored. `In Vietnam, we were
basically fighting guerrilla warfare', said retired Air Force Colonel
Pat Ham, who spent two tours of duty in Vietnam and who, as a foreign
military sales officer, has had extensive dealings with countries
throughout the Middle East. `And that's exactly what's going on now.
They'd fire mortar rounds into the base and hit headquarters or
barracks. It wasn't strategic military victories on their part. It was
a constant thing you lived with, and it`s very similar to the
situation in Iraq now'.”

“I think it's a very d...

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http://www.greenleft.org.au/current/565p18.htm

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

References:
Posted by: Otis Willie

>IRAQ: Vietnam replayed
>
>(EXCERPT) BY DOUG LORIMER

Yeah, most likely, IMO, but that's Jones' opinion. I hold that
opinion; I stand by it and I can defend it... or not, depending, I
suppose. Who the fuck is Lorimer and why should I GAF about his or
her opinion?

So, Otis... what's your opinion? Personally, I think we're gonna get
clobbered. We'll probably prevail on the tactical level, just like we
(sorta) did in Vietnam. We'll ultimately lose because the American
people demand a quick, easy victory with *very* few of our sons coming
home in flag-draped coffins.

You watch, Otis. If our enemies are willing to pay the cost and exact
their own cost in reply and if they can hang on long enough, then,
sooner or later, a modern Walter Chronkite will emerge and declare the
war "unwinnable" and that'll be that.

So... what's your own personal opinion?

Jones

In message !Jones
wrote:

>So, Otis... what's your opinion?

I bet it'll be something like "I sawer teh predy kity runded akros mi
bak yart".

References:
Posted by: Sharky

>In message !Jones
> wrote:
>
>>So, Otis... what's your opinion?
>
>I bet it'll be something like "I sawer teh predy kity runded akros mi
>bak yart".

Hey! Shut up, asshole. Otis wrote hizzelf a by gwad *book* that
woulda got him at the very least a 'B' in any community college
creative writing class in the country.

I'll give him this much: he wrote it and put it out there. And he
told Craig Thompson to eat his shorts iff'n he didn't like it.

Yo! Otis! I got a first draft almost ready. You wanna read it and
tell me what you think?

So, where the fuck is your book, Sharks?

Jones

In message !Jones
wrote:

>So, where the fuck is your book, Sharks?

http://stink.codelib.net.au/swf/20203rolly.swf

On Sun, 07 Dec 2003 20:44:37 -0500, Sharky
wrote:

>In message !Jones
> wrote:
>
>>So, where the fuck is your book, Sharks?
>
>http://stink.codelib.net.au/swf/20203rolly.swf


BWAAAAAAHAAAAHAAAAAAHAAAAAHAAAHAAAAAAA !!
---
Alan

On Sun, 07 Dec 2003 1939 -0600, !Jones
wrote:


>Hey! Shut up, asshole. Otis wrote hizzelf a by gwad *book* that
>woulda got him at the very least a 'B' in any community college
>creative writing class in the country.
>
>I'll give him this much: he wrote it and put it out there. And he
>told Craig Thompson to eat his shorts iff'n he didn't like it.


Well, I have to agree. Not much of a book, but he did put it out
there. I just found out today he also has 129 seperate groups on yahoo
relating to the subject matter. Where does he find the fucking energy
and time to deal with it?


"But now is the time for the younger men to lock in rough encounters, time for me to yield to the pains of old age. But there was a day I shone among the champions."

Homer, The Illiad, 23.715-719 (800 BC). King Nestor of Pylos.