17 similarities between Iraq and Vietnam

Submitted by Bob Seward, Air Force 1968-70, 15 years as a doctor in VA hospitals.

During 15 years as an internist treating vets from Vietnam, beginning in 1989, I had the privilege of hearing stories that many vets had kept to themselves for 20-30 years and were too painful to tell their wives or families. After hearing those testimonies and reading books on NAM, [See list of recommended books at end -ed.] it became obvious that NAM was a terrible mistake. As one vet told me, “It wasn’t worth one guy we lost there.” Using my experience and thinking about the war, I have come up with 17 similarities between Iraq and Vietnam:

1. Neither Iraq nor Vietnam presented a real threat to our national security.
2. Both wars were wars of choice.
3. Both Lyndon Johnson and George Bush tricked Congress into supporting the war (Vietnam’s lie about our ships being attacked in the Gulf of Tonkin, and Sadaam’s mushroom cloud).
4. Both presidents frightened the American people into supporting the war.
5. Both presidents wanted war for political purposes (LBJ wanted to beat Goldwater, and Bush wanted to be a “war president”).
6. The prosecution of both wars was bungled by the best and the brightest.
7. The opponents of the war were portrayed as un-American and unpatriotic–not supporting our troops.
8. The troops were never given sufficient forces or the proper equipment to win.
9. Both wars are unconventional, guerilla wars.
10. Collateral damage strengthens the insurgency.
11. The occupation forces do not speak the native tongue nor understand the native culture.
12. Our soldiers cannot tell the “friendlies” from the enemy.
13. Most important, the hunters (our guys) have become the hunted, the targeters have become the targets.
14. Both Presidents attempted to maintain a charade of a “coalition” of countries fighting with us. But because there is no real coalition, the American people bear the lion’s share of human and financial loss.
15. The justification for continuing the war has become to honor the sacrifice of the fallen, or as Bush recently said, “We will finish the task they gave their lives for.” Nixon continued on and we lost another 30 thousand.
16. There are no good options–to stay is bad and to leave is bad.
17. Both wars were started by liars from Texas.

Seward’s list of great books on Vietnam:
They Marched into Sunlight by David Mariness
Who the Hell are we Fighting? by C. Michael Hiam
Cat from HUE by John Lawrence