Is The Iraq War Unwinnable Like Vietnam
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Most of us have grown up getting to know details about Vietnam and the war fought there. Even if we were a twinkle in the milkman’s eye during the Vietnam war, popular culture, books, films, serials are dedicated to Vietnam war.
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Now with what is going on in Iraq, it looks quite evident that the Iraq war is unwinnable for American just like the Vietnam war. However, in mid-April 2004, George W Bush just refused the analogy between Iraq and Vietnam and declared that the analogy was false.
Or is it?
Many people who served in Vietnam are quite open about the fact that Iraq today looks more and more like Vietnam. That is why Iraq war may end up being unwinnable like Vietnam. They justify this by citing the strategic and tactical similarities. Once again the American troops are fighting a guerilla war. The terrain is difficult and the insurgents know it better than the Americans. The insurgents attack at a time and place of their choosing and avoid places where the American firepower can wreak havoc to them. The insurgents in Iraq are engaging the support of civilians and the American soldiers are finding it difficult to separate civilians and insurgents without alienating the local population of Iraq. In fact, the Americans in Iraq are facing the enemies who refuse to play by rules and are willing to die for their beliefs, just like in Vietnam.
Even today, the American military thinks that the might of firepower will help them. The U.S. troops are still struggling in Iraq to establish a balance between winning hearts of the locals and rooting out the insurgents. They refuse to account for civilian casualties, which are often high in number, while making sure that they account each and every American casualty giving an indication to the Iraqis that American lives are more important than Iraqis.
The failure to understand Iraq and the local Islamic culture along with lack of Arab language specialists and experts is marginalizing the American troops just like in Vietnam when the U.S. military refused to understand the Buddhist culture of Vietnam.
The U.S. military has no idea what they were getting into when they marched into Vietnam and the same holds true for Iraq.
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