I agree that how the war in Iraq started has some resemblance to how Vietnam started but only some and here is why.Jedi Master Spock wrote:When you two are yelling at each other, you aren't getting anything across to each other. I understand this is an emotionally intense topic, but we aren't going to get anywhere by appealing to emotions.
If I may?
Domestically, from the American point of view - soldiers or civilians - the war in Iraq and the war in Vietnam are very different. The rhetoric was different, and there were draftees being sent. Vietnam was a strategic quagmire that lasted many years and involved a war with two clearly identified combatants (N. and S. Vietnam), at least at the start. To PunkMaister, the ideologies being talked about are different, and that is important.
From a global point of view, however, both look quite similar. American troops are sent in to a small country (25 million people or so), defense contractors and other corporate interests get rich, and lots of the natives of that country die as the US attempts to impose a political structure and control the smaller country against the will of its own populace. To Mr. Oragahn, all the talk about this or that ideology is just that - talk, with little relation to the real meanings or motives.
What will make the most difference in how historians from all schools view the current war in Iraq, and whether they call it the same or different from the Vietnam war, will depend on what happens next. But for now, historians judging the start of the war will have little trouble finding common ground between Bush's justifications for starting a war and the Tonkin Gulf resolution.
Vietnam never, ever attacked the US homeland. And while it can be argued that Iraq did not attack the US their fellow muslims did attack it and savagely so on 9/11 and from then on sadly but surely Saddam's days were counting down as the US began to mobilize it's war machine. The U.S and Iraq had been grinding axes against each other since the end of the first gulf war and that is no secret. It is no secret that just a few years before 9/11 Saddam had kicked the international inspectors out and just about everyone was concerned about him redeveloping his weapons programs which is evidenced by all the resolutions that were passed against Iraq up 'till the US 2nd invasion of that country.
The only ones that got rich out of this were the weapons developers...