Posted on 12/29/2005 2:34:16 PM PST by KingofZion
It's not uncommon these days to hear talk of "lessons" learned in Vietnam and their application to current U.S. conflicts. Unfortunately, most observers have ignored the uniqueness of the Vietnam War, picking and choosing the lessons learned there with little regard for their application to the present. This is particularly true with the current buzz over the "clear and hold" concept, which has gained popularity in some circles. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice invoked it during Senate testimony in October, and columnist David Ignatius reported in his Nov. 4 op-ed that many Army officers are reading historian Lewis Sorley's book "A Better War," which argues that the United States could have prevailed in Vietnam if the military had used Gen. Creighton Abrams's ideas earlier in the war. This simplistic notion may resonate in Washington, but it means little to troops on the ground. Marines in Fallujah or soldiers in Baghdad or near the Syrian border will tell you that they have been "clearing" areas for more than a year now, but "holding" them is a different matter. That takes a lot of troops, not small teams. So much for simple lessons from Vietnam. But for better or worse, Vietnam is the most recent example of American counterinsurgency -- and our longest -- so it would be a mistake to reject it because of its complex and controversial nature. Stripped to essentials, there are three basic lessons from the war. All must be employed by any counterinsurgency effort, no matter what shape it takes.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Mistake 4 -- Letting treason go unpunished
5 - Using the models based on Geurrilla warfare and applying them to counter Terrorists.
"Three Lessons From Vietnam [for Iraq]"
Three lessons not mentioned in the WP article:
1. The press can gin up public resentment in a small, vocal minority by slanting and selectively reporting war news.
2. The press can make a rabid, anti-American minority look mainstream with exaggerated and distorted reporting of their activities.
3. A minority that aggressively and publicly opposes American interests feeds the morale and resolve of fanatic terrorists, prolongs the conflict and costs American lives.
Just as we had in the Vietnam War, we still have a Democrat Party that would rather see our soldiers killed and our country defeated than to allow a Republican President receive credit for defeating our enemy.
The same people who were giuilty of Treason during Viet nam are still guilty of treason now. One of the biggest mistakes of Viet nam was not prosecuting traitors Jane Fonda and John Kerry.
[I always said it was a mistake to take out the entire Iraqi army (that is - to the extent it wasn't necessary to control the country).]
No it wasn't. :-)
The whole point of the war itself was to dissolve the entire Sunni-dominated Iraqi Army...thus reversing 1000 years of Sunni political control of the Middle East. The oil is in the hands of Shiites and Kurds now. That represents a massive historical shift.
A distant second was the Flypaper Strategy of drawing and killing SECRETLY large numbers of anti-American Arab males.
Looking at today's Democrat party, I wonder how intertwined those two goals truly are. I would wager they would want to see our army defeated and our troops killed no matter who was president.
Main Lesson of Vietnam:
When we strategically won the war by getting China to reverse its foreign policy and become our beeatch...top level people decided to let both China and the American left save face by declaring for the left victory.
This caused the Central American wars and 9-11.
So the lesson was: Don't let the enemy and your own left wing save face....because the left wing and new enemies in the future will only get encouraged by it all.
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America's 1st Vietnamese-American State Legislator...
Tran Blasts Dean: Calls for Solidarity in Iraq
http://www.Freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1536289/posts
...just for the CLARITY of it.
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We "brain-drained" Vietnam.
Mastake # 4 - Trusting that the Dems would be on America's side!
Mistake # 5 - Trusting that the main stream media would be on Ameria's side!
[Don't let the enemy and your own left wing save face]
OK, OK...it is OK to let the enemy save face by coming over to your side against a new common enemy. We allowed the German Nazis to save face by letting many of them ALLY with the USA against the Soviet Union at the beginning of the Cold War. This alliance ended the Nazi Werewolf insurgency.
We an now get the Sunnis to ask for our help and protection against the Shiites...but the Iranian government is too smart for us. The Iranian government is sponsoring and paying the Sunni insurgency.
The Sunni insurgency are acting against the interest of the Sunnis and IN THE INTEREST of the Shiites by keeping the Sunnis from allying with the Americans to protect themselves from the Shiites.
The Iranian Hardliners are very clever!! Maybe they read my posts last year. :-(
There is no choice but to overthrow the Iranian government, which is apparently harboring Al Qaeda and which is the force behind the Sunni insurgency for the above clever reason.
[There is no choice but to overthrow the Iranian government, which is apparently harboring Al Qaeda and which is the force behind the Sunni insurgency for the above clever reason.]
The Iraq War will not end until the Iranian Government changes. The Sunni Insurgency is a puppet of Iran.
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Sacrifice begets Sacrifice:
MEL's -PASSION- sparked by -WE WERE SOLDIERS-
http://www.Freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1085111/posts
Signed:.."ALOHA RONNIE" Guyer
Veteran-"WE WERE SOLDIERS" Battle of IA DRANG-1965
http://www.lzxray.com/guyer_set1.htm
http://www.lzxray.com/guyer_collection.htm
(IA DRANG-1965 Photo Collection)
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The Vietnam War was all about China and the Soviet Union.
The Iraq War is all about Iran and Syria.
Nothing about either war really has anything to do with an insurgency. Both wars could have been stopped in an afternoon if the real perpetrators were told that they were going to all die if they didn't cut it out.
I might add that the "Axis-of-Evil" might also include the Saudi Royal family and Egyptian factions who support terror.
We have heard too much about the Arab Street and too little about who controls the Arab Media.
IF you point a weapon at an American you die, your wife and kids are thrown out of the house and it is destroyed along with everything for 100 yards. If your sons are over 8 years old they will be monitored in a special care unit for some period of time to see if they want to point weapons at Americans.
The terrorists must be dealt with in large chunks not one or two at a time - to avoid collateral damage. Oh yea and if your rat your buddy out we will reward you with 10 pairs of Levi's and 200 sheep.
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