My Life Be Like…

All we have been hearing about lately in the news are issues about the war in Iraq and what is the best descision to make regarding its future.  Popping up more frequently, however, are comparisons between the war in Iraq and the war in Vietnam that occured decades ago. Some people believe that there are striking similarities between the two wars and in order to prevent history from repeating itsself, we must pull out of Iraq immediately. While others do not see any similarities between the two and strongly believe that the United States is doing a great job, truly accomplishing something, and that we should stay there until the job is done. The real question in my mind is, is the war in Iraq the new Vietnam? and if so, what should be done to ammeliorate the situation?

Actually, today, do you know what the first thing that popped onto my web page was? An article comparing the war in Iraq to Vietnam, entitled “The Next Step? Think Vietnam.” In the article, the author states

Iraq is not Vietnam. But America’s predicament in Iraq is becoming increasingly similar to the one it faced in Southeast Asia more than 30 years ago. Henry Kissinger’s negotiations to end the Vietnam War have been criticized from both the left and right. One side thought he moved too slowly to get us out, the other that he gave up too much. But looking at our circumstances in Iraq should give us some appreciation for the difficulty of his task. With a losing hand and deteriorating conditions on the ground, Kissinger maneuvered to extricate the United States from a situation in which it could not achieve its objectives, while at the same time limiting the damage, shoring up regional allies and maintaining some measure of American credibility. A version of such a strategy is the only one that has any chance of success in Iraq today. - Newsweek

I find it very interesting that this would be the first thing I saw as I was signing on to the internet to do this assignment. To me, this really demonstrates that not only is this issue on the minds of Mr. O and the kids in this class, but it is really a deepseated issue that affects the hearts and minds of many Americans and others people from all over the world.

My own opinion regarding this issue is somewhat divided. I can not actually chose whether I think that Iraq is the new Vietnam or not. Because while I can see some similiarities, there are also a number of differences which separate each of the wars from each other and make them unique and different. Some similarites I see are the fact that we are in a foreign country fighting against people who are not a distinct army. Unlike World War II the soldiers in Vietnam and Iraq are not infact typical soldiers, but militiamen wearing normal clothes and pretending to be civilians, sometimes even using their own children to help them in the fighting process. This military practice makes it almost impossible to pick out the enemy from the friends. Another parllel that I see is the reasons why we are in the wars to begin with. When the United States got involved in Vietnam, we were there in order to stop the spread of communism, because our leaders believed strongly in the “domino effect” and if one country fell to communism, soon enough all of the bordering countries would as well. Now, we are fighting in the war on terror, against terrorism and its spread. It is almost as though we still believe strongly in the “domino effect” and if we do not prevent the spread of terrorism now, it will dominate the world.

I believe that Bush should slow down and allow himself to think for a minute and truly soak up the lesson of what occured in vietnam and how he can prevent history from repeating its self, becuase obviously he hasn’t done that yet. In a recent arabic news article from www.watchingamerica.com Bush was quoted as saying,

History has a long march to it… we tend to want there to be instant success in the world and the task in Iraq is going to take a while. Therefore we’ll succeed… unless we quit. - Saad Mehio

He should really take the time to learn his lesson from the presidents that came before him, because it doesn’t really seem like the situation in Iraq is getting any better at the moment, so staying there until we succeed could take a while.