Vietnamese See Parallels Between Situation There, U.S.-led Iraq War

[G_j]

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0421-10.htm

Published on Wednesday, April 21, 2004 by Knight-Ridder

Vietnamese See Parallels Between Situation There, U.S.-led Iraq War
by Ben Stocking

HANOI, Vietnam - The Vietnamese people have some friendly advice for the United States: Don't make the same mistake twice. Get out of Iraq before it's too late.

As a divided America debates whether the U.S.-led Iraq war is "Bush's Vietnam," opinion in Vietnam is united: What the Vietnamese call the "American War" was a misguided adventure, and so is the war in Iraq.

In two dozen interviews, Vietnamese from across the country noted some key differences between the two conflicts, such as the lack of a unified Iraqi opposition.

But nearly all said there was a common theme: imperialist wars of aggression in which a rich, powerful country meddles in the affairs of a smaller, weaker foe whose culture it doesn't understand. The result, they say, could be another quagmire.

"It seems like the United States is going to be stuck in Iraq, just like they got stuck in Vietnam years ago," said Col. Tran Nhung, who writes for Quan Doi Nhan Dan, Vietnam's military daily. "No country in the world will accept a foreign invasion - this is a fundamental truth."

..more..

[wtmusic]

1. One could argue Iraq is worse

At least in Vietnam the goal (no matter how unrealistic or how ineptly it was realized) was to counter the spread of Communism and the human rights abuses it had engendered. There was a nobler purpose.

Iraq is thinly-veiled corporate greed. That's all.

[Djinn]

4. depends on how you view that

"At least in Vietnam the goal (no matter how unrealistic or how ineptly it was realized) was to counter the spread of Communism and the human rights abuses it had engendered. There was a nobler purpose."

The Vietnamese weer fighting foreign occupation and there was a LONG history of antagonism between themselves and the Chinese, were they not forced into an arrangement with the Communists the US could have had a pro US nationalist government in South East Asia instead of 50,000 body bags and an eventual Communist country.

The "reasons" for Vietnam were every bit as implausible as those given for Iraq.

[wtmusic]

6. Few natural resources

it makes all the difference in the world

[narcjen]

5. In Vietnam, it was all about corporate greed as well.

Don't delude yourself. The idea that the US waged the Vietnam war in the name of human rights is naive at best.

[G_j]

10. It was a French 'colony'

they got their asses kicked and bailed, the US steps in...
Colonialiasm, Empire the same old thing..

[Aidoneus]

7. a war for human rights?!

Sure, they killed millions of people to fight human rights abuses.. There was no "nobility" in the purpose there.

[wtmusic]

8. Well 35 million deaths are attributed to Stalin

so I guess it's all relative.

[G_j]

11. three million Vietnamese

50,000 Americans

[narcjen]

2. Great advice

but as long as there are great fortunes to be made by the defense contractors, the war shall press on for a few more decades. Or until there's no one left to shoot in the ME. Whichever comes first.

[abbyhoffman]

3. Not the

Vietnamese who escaped to the US they overwhelmingly support the war in Iraq. Vietnamese in Nam publicly dis the War but behind closed doors who knows. Remember 99% of the Vietnamese in the US now fought on the US side

[G_j]

9. makes no sense

"Vietnamese in Nam publicly dis the War but behind closed doors who knows."

Why? Do you think there is some sort of peer pressure to criticize the Iraq war? That is absurd. I see no reason not to take these people at their word.