It's a low-grade form of war. It's not even as intense as Vietnam.
But it is, like Viet Nam part of a much larger war. Viet Nam is best seen as not a war but rather as a campaign in the war between the Soviet Union and America. Iraq and Afghanistan are campaigns in the war between Islam and the rest of the world, the third such war.
In the Viet Nam campaign there was no likelihood, ever, that we would suffer strikes on our own soil. We have suffered such strikes twice in this one, both times at WTC and are constantly at risk of more such strikes, perhaps nuclear or biological or chemical. Don't trivialize it just because we have not had so many casualties and things have gone quickly.
By the way how many casualties did we suffer in our 1st couple of years in Viet Nam?