 - Last login: 20 hours agoSilentreverie
- silentreverie is a single 16 year old person from New York, USA.
- Likes 439 pages, 26 videos, 85 photos • 6 fans • Received 2 reviews
- Member since Jan 03, 2008
"So, this is my life. And I want you to know that I am both happy and sad and I'm still trying to figure out how that could be."
..From the Perks of Being a Wallflower
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Parallels between the Vietnam War and the Iraq War
As the long war in Iraq drags on, many people are noticing many similarities between the 1969 Vietnam War and the extensive Iraq war that has been in effect ever since 2003.
The most obvious, would be the strategic and tactical similarities between the two wars. In Iraq, a guerrilla war is being fought, where the territory is difficult for our American troops, and the enemy attacks at a time and place of its own choosing. Here, in Iraq we face the same challenges as we did in Vietnam, an enemy that refuses to play by our rules, the ones we know best, and plainly ready to die for his beliefs.
Originally, the United States had set aside 315 billion dollars in 2006 for the Iraqi and Afghanistan wars but the cost of the Iraqi war alone has been estimated at about 3 trillion US dollars. Three trillion (3,000,000,000,000) dollars spent all on a war that seems to be heading in the same direction as the Vietnam War did. Instead wouldn't it be more worthwhile to have spent that money totally eliminating world poverty, or providing clean drinking water to every person that needs it? Three trillion US dollars also could have provided Primary education for ever child on earth, buy gas for ever driver in the US for 10 years, and provide free medical care for 16 million Americans.
Although the cost of the Iraq War far exceeds the cost of the Vietnam War, the number of lives lost in both wars, are as tragic. The Vietnam War cost the United States 58,000 lives and 350,000 casualties. It also resulted in between one and two million Vietnamese deaths. Keep in mind that the Iraq war is currently still being fought, and every moment, more of our soldiers die. As of April 4th, 2008, the Iraq war cost over 600,000 Iraqi men and women, more than 4,000 American servicemen and women and approximately 175 British lives. More than 20,000 American soldiers (and 1,400 British soldiers) are injured.
The Vietnam War and the Iraq War are both wars of choice, as the US government misinterpreted information and had no idea what we were getting into when we marched in the Vietnam and Iraq. With the general public deceived, the US Government was able to first engage US forces and then keep them there.
Another similarity between the two wars is the failure of America to understand and empathize with the local culture and language, creating further barriers between the two opposing enemies. There will never be even the slightest chance of peace if we are ignorant and arrogant to the world around us.
As time passes, the resemblances between the two wars are becoming plain and simple to see. Small parallels can also be drawn between the two wars, such as the suicide bombers in the Middle East and the Buddhist self-immolations in Vietnam, both that are perplexing to the average American.
And despite all of this clear evidence, our president refuses to recognize the connections between the two. On April 13th, 2004 President Bush firmly states that "I think the analogy (between the Vietnam War and the Iraq war) is false. I also happen to think that analogy sends the wrong message to our troops, and sends the wrong message to the enemy." With so many lives at stake, as well as effort and money, we should not be worrying about sending the wrong message, after six years at war, but bringing our troops back home.
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