Is Iraq Another Vietnam
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Is Iraq another Vietnam? Are we making the same mistakes that were made not so long ago? These questions are in a lot peoples minds these days. These two wars have many things in common. The first is that they both are very controversial. Many people were against the Vietnam War and now many people not just in the United States but all over the world are against the Iraq war. These wars seem to be insignificant. They seem to be point less. These kinds of questions would never come up if there was not so much American money and lives being lost.
There are many comparisons between Vietnam and Iraq.
The first thing that pops out when you talk about these countries is that they both are very poverty-stricken. Both countries people are very much below the poverty level. They live day to day. So when the subject of war comes up many think what they can possibly fight with. They have no resources to fight a war against the United States. It is a very unfair war if you think about it.
The second thing that always pops out when you think of these two wars is how much the two presidents that are in charge of these wars are very similar in their thinking. In the article Iraq Isnt Vietnam but they rhyme examines this. The author quotes both Lyndon B. Johnson and George W. Bush. “Our military is confronting terrorists in Iraq and Afghanistan and in other places so our people will not have to confront terrorist violence in New York or St. Louis or Los Angeles” (George W. Bush 2003) “If we dont stop the reds in South Vietnam, tomorrow they will be in Hawaii, and next week they will in San Francisco.” (LBJ 1966) It seems both them are trying to push their unwanted war on the public by making afraid. Afraid of what might happen tomorrow if we do not go to war. It really seems that George W. Bush went and plagiarized his speech from Lyndon B. Johnson. Therefore, should we not go and expel President Bush from the white house. If a college student was Plagiarizing he or she would be expelled from school so should we not return the favor for our beloved president.
Both of these presidents had reasons that they went into this war. President Bush had the fear of weapons of mass destruction. He believed that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass Destruction. He believes that Hussein was a huge threat to the world but as we, all discovered there were no weapons of mass Destruction. It was just an excuse for the United States to into Iraq to over throw Saddam. The excuse Johnson used to go into Vietnam was the communist. He said that if we do not help the poor people of Vietnam then the country would be taken over by communist. If that happened then all the other little countries of south East Asia would have the same fate. There was some truth to the threat about communism and Johnson might have been right.
The two wars had another thing in common the amount of confidence both of the presidents had going into their wars. In the article, Mistakes of Vietnam repeated With Iraq the author talks about this. He talks about how both of the presidents lied to the congress and the public. Bush lied about the weapons of mass destruction and Johnson lied about the golf of Tonkin situation. He also talks about how Johnson underestimated his enemy.
Even though in both of the wars the United States thought they were helping the people of these countries the natives did not believe it. There are many differences between the U.S. and these two countries. They are very traditional and they are not at all westernized. The people of these two countries did not want to live the way we do. They believe that the American way of life is very crude. They do not express their sexuality the way the western world does. Many Vietnamese people were out raged when the American G.I. brought their crude behavior with them. In Vietnam, there were not many brothels before the troops got there but after they did thousands of brothels opened up all over the cities. Not just only in Vietnam but all over nearing countries like the Philippines. The American soldiers were destroying their way of life. In the article It is not Vietnam Most of the people of these countries liked the way they lived and did not want western drugs or sexuality in their countries. In the article Its no Vietnam the Friedman discusses how many Iraqis feel the same way “they fear that were going to permanently change Iraq” (Friedman ÐÐ) In a way it seems the Iraqi extremist are trying more harder to keep their culture from changing because of the simple reason that it is Muslim country. That is the reason that they do not want American occupation for a long time. They fear that western way of living might rub off on them.
Yes, there are many similarities between Vietnam and Iraq but there are major differences. In the article, is Iraq becoming another Vietnam? The author Susan Page discusses the main difference between Vietnam and Iraqi war. The main difference is that the war in Vietnam lasted for a long time more then a decade. She also talks about that in the Vietnam War fifty-eight American lives were lost. Compare that to about only two years in Iraq and only about seven hounded men and women died fighting. When you compare