the 60's had vietnam. does anyone else besides me happen to see this war as our own version of all this?? and what's your take on the war and all the goings on around it?? love and peace.
There are definetly some major parallels. Though there are also differences as well. Where Vietnam was supposedly fought to preserve a "Democracy"(that never existed) the war in Iraq is being fought under the guise of introducing democracy.Though in reality, the American leadership doesn't give a shit about the Iraqi people, as evidenced by relentless bombing campaigns. Another difference is unfortunatly, a much weaker anti-war movement. There are fewer and smaller protests against the Iraq war than there were for Vietnam. Hell, there's even less protest songs. Either people have become more apathetic, or are more willing to accept the bullshit idea that whatever their leader says is right.
People were drafted in Vietnam (sent to die with no choice), which I'm sure had a much larger effect on the anti-war movement then. The war in Iraq has no draftees, all volunteered for military service. Around 50K people were killed or lost in action in Vietnam, whereas Iraq has over 3K. With 50K people being lost from the US military, there were many more friends and relatives of dead servicemen. I'm not sure how many civilian casualties occured in Vietnam, but the fact that the US military was not trained or equipped to fight a guerrila war, resulted in unorthodox methods of militarism, and US military ground forces going out of their mind and on killing sprees, wiping out complete villages of men, women and children. They were wrong for doing this of course(it's very sad, that's all wars), so when the media reported about this, protesters started calling them babykillers. Anti-war protesters were not supportive of troops at all in the Vietnam era (or so I've read). In Iraq, the large number of US citizens are very supportive of the troops, except of course the troops that also have gone on killing rampages in Iraq(killing little children, women and innocent bystanders). Rightfully so, they are wrong for doing this (and it's also very sad to see on the news). The Iraqi civilian casualties are around 655K (last time I remember). That figure represents civilian deaths resulting from US military, Iraqi insurgents, terrorist bombings, etc. There is much more to both these wars, but I think this is a good start to add to the differences in anti-war movements/wars that have already been stated by others.
I'd have to agree with the above. Vietnam was pretty much a mistake, but in this case we have volunteers going across to Iraq. There are many who are simply trying to do the right thing, and I support that, but of course you are going to have the jerks who will go berzerk in the previously-mentioned killing rampages unfortunately. The three major differences between our current situation and Vietnam are the following that I can say off the bat: 1. We were attacked in what has gone down as the worst attack upon American soil. 2. Our current troops in Iraq are volunteers; no one so far is being forced to go or being drafted, and 3. Iraq has all that oil. So this situation isn't quite so quickly cut-and-dried as Vietnam. I remember I once read a quote from someone back in the 60s who was saying that in the Vietnam situation they kept wondering if they were doing the right or wrong thing, pointing out, "It was easy in WWII because the Nazis had openly proclaimed they were going to take over the world and take away everyone else's freedom. Here it isn't so easy." But you now have a certain someone out there now proclaiming himself "the new Hitler"... ...so for the troops who honestly feel they are trying to defend the world's freedom and stop all this nonsense that fanatics in that country are causing currently around the world, sure, I support them very much because they're trying to do something for others. There's one thing I don't quite understand, though. We finally found Hussein and all, so why are we still over there at the moment? (I say this because after a while I just stopped watching coverage of it altogether because it was just all starting to give me a severe headache trying to follow it all technically.) :/ Oh and a real quick note: I was once told stories from a Vietnam vet who confirmed what Loveyouto was just saying above. He said that upon returning home, he and the other vets were pelted with manure, eggs, trash, etc.
The only reason we are in Iraq is because of oil. Period. The attack on the World Trade Center had nothing to do with it, except for being a lame excuse. Why are we still over there? Because Iraq has the largest oil reserves in the world next to Saudi Arabia. It's all about the oil.
I call bullshit on the whole thing! War is stupid. Thats all there is to it and that's all I'm going to say!
Are we actually bringing oil back to the US, though? If we're there for oil, then wheres all the oil that we're taking? Really >.< It confuses me.
"No Vietnam for us, Yo, Iraq it's on!"-MC Lars "iGeneration" and he is right...sadly, correct. fuck, what shall we ever do? I feel a lot of protests coming on..
i honestly think its a waste of time. losing men to a battle that we cannot win. what has changed lately? absolutely nothing. except for the price in debt due to war.
you know what i dislike- the yellow " support our troops" ribbons support them for what-killing thousands and thousands of people and trying to push our type of government when it clearly isnt working. and its worse that they volunteered to do so. you all have excellent ideas by the way
