U.S. looks to Vietnam war experience for Afghan tips

Friday 07th August, 07:00 AM JST

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Triumvere at 11:17 PM JST - 7th August

A very sensible post from Betzee.
usaexpat at 11:26 PM JST - 7th August

Well we didn't learnm sh*t from Vietnam if you look at our experience in Iraq. Epic Failure
Triumvere at 11:35 PM JST - 7th August

How do you figure that, usaexpat? We lost upwards of 58,000 in Vietnam and, while it is clear we made some terrible mistakes in Iraq, it is not at all clear that we have "failed." I would say that the Iraqi gov't has a pretty good shot of becoming a stable democracy. You might disagree with me on the odds, but you'd need a crystal ball to be assure of "failure". What I want to know is, what "tips" have we learned in Iraq that can help us in Afghanistan?
zurcronium at 11:42 PM JST - 7th August

In Iraq the USA exchanged one despot for another. At the cost of trillions of dollars and millions of lives. The oil will continue to be sold, that is the only important factor to the powers that created this failed war.

The only thing that one can apply from vietnam to iraq is that eventually the USA will leave in defeat (no matter how the government spins the exit).
usaexpat at 11:53 PM JST - 7th August

Triumvere: We're exiting Iraq without the shame we had in Vietnam, I'll give you that. Problem is I don't think Iraq will manage to become a functional state once they don't have the back up of US forces. One thing we can take away from Iraq is that we need to understand the locals better if we hope to win "hearts and minds"
Triumvere at 12:01 AM JST - 8th August

One thing we can take away from Iraq is that we need to understand the locals better if we hope to win "hearts and minds"

A very important lesson indeed.
DenDon at 12:07 AM JST - 8th August

Iraq was a success no? oil for a few more years until the next time someone gets shirty. stop watching Fox, it'll make you think a bit divvy
Sarge at 12:11 AM JST - 8th August

"In Iraq the USA exchanged one despot for another"

Yeah, that al-Maliki is a real despot! Ha ha ha!
Triumvere at 12:12 AM JST - 8th August

I'm going to have to admit to not understanding that last post, DenDon.
DenDon at 02:45 AM JST - 8th August

I'll div it down for you since you seem a bit dolly dimple. recent Iraq war was for OIL, just like the last Iraq war was. there's not much left and even george bush realised that, or prolly someone told him about it. got a bit derailed due to US balls-up. if you watch too much TV or read sarge's posts I'd forgive you for thinking it was all about freedom. oh yeah...don't watch Fox News.
TheMarion at 05:04 AM JST - 8th August

I was a "Spook" in Vietnam and from moment one it was apparent that we were losing and the leadership had no idea of what "management" entailed and no Colonel was going to listen to a spook - so I wrote my Congressman and told him we were losing and he should come out and understand why - I would give him the tour! His reply was "If you think you can do my job, why don't you run? I immediately reigned my postion and returned to Washington D.C. only to find out that you had to have at least 2 million dollars to run. Patton, where are you when we need you?
adaydream at 05:12 AM JST - 8th August

First thing that was learned from Vietnam, you don't put 2ndLts just out of Officers Candidate School in charge of anything, not even the head. < :-)
zurcronium at 05:33 AM JST - 8th August

sarge,

they do not report the real news on fox. karzai, al-maliki, allwai are all the same. corrupt to the core and despotic.
Triumvere at 09:43 AM JST - 8th August

DenDon,

Meh. The Iraq war was about a great many things, oil being only one of them. I'd be interested to know what makes you think "there's not much left".
saeiry at 03:13 PM JST - 14th August

Why do you Americans love domination so much? Why don't you stop wars and invasions? I come from a little country, not particularly rich, not powerful, and I'm perfectly fine with that, we live in peace. What's wrong with that? Why don't you leave the world alone? Leave it in peace... Power is not everything... sorry for saying what I'm thinking...