Is the insurgency in Iraq another Vietnam?
The similarities are there...
The Left (ALP, Greens and Democrats) see major political advantage if the US and our country's troops can be defeated. Future decades of Left wing social and political reform are at stake.
Small numbers of casualties are reported each day in precise and sensational detail.
The human face of each individual tragedy played out in lounge-room TVs and car radios in real-time. Each lovingly crafted heart-breaking story reducing the will of the fighters
and the voters to press on.
Media reports
are balanced: the enemy's press releases are given as much credence as those from one's own country. What the enemy says is reported and
treated at face value. What one's government says is seldom treated at face value and is carefully dissected and countered.
People believe all politicians and government officials (their fellow citizens) are liars. The external challenge is not as serious as the challenge from within.
Retired politicians,
friends and notable citizens queue up to claim the high moral ground, denouncing the war and calling for a ceasefire.
The
shameless and treacherous openly side with the enemy.
Thousands may be slaughtered elsewhere in the world at any time but the major story of the day will usually be Iraq.
The Left are in a frenzy of agitation
organising church rallies hither and thither and Joe Public goes along for the chicks, music, the festival and the warm and fuzzy feeling of making a difference.
The anti-war movement makes
strange bedfellows. All causes associate with the peace movement. It's fashionable to be anti-war. In fact you had better be, or else face social ostracism. Those who are anti-war are free to speak almost wherever and whenever they please.
For the Extreme Left the elusive goal of overthrowing Western democracy is again in sight, this time its with the aid of Islamo Fascists.
The surreal disconnect between the fight for
our very way of life being fought on one hand and the vacuous pursuit of
trivia on the other.
So is Iraq another Vietnam?
Only if the people of the Western democracies give in and re-run the same lame soap-opera, all over again.
The only thing that would be different this time around would be a complete lack of good music.
Not even close.
In Vietnam, the North Vietnamese were supported by the Soviets and (to a lesser extent) by the Chinese. The Soviets poured in tens of millions of dollars worth of material, provided extensive training via "advisors" and even flew some of the MIG aircraft against our guys over North Vietnam.
In Iraq, there will be covert support from Syria and Iran - and that's it (other than hundreds of Al Queda wannabes, which is great, since they will all flock to where our guys can kill them).
In Vietnam, there were jungles to hide in, our technology was far more primative, and the people were predominantly a single ethnic group. Religion was not a dividing factor.
In Iraq, there are Shiites, Sunnis, Kurds, and a sprinkling of other folks like Turkmen. They don't get along with one another. The Sunnis and Shiites have been killing each other at least as long as they have been jihading against the "Crusaders" and "Jews".
So -- no matter how the DemonRats try to frame it -- Vietnam it ain't.