37 years after TET, "Vietnamization" has turned into "Arabification"

[paineinthearse]

Funny, I thought they already were Arab.

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http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=reutersEdge&storyID=7337643

Tet Offensive Reverberates 37 Years Later in Iraq
Sun Jan 16, 2005 12:42 PM ET

By Will Dunham
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Iraq's Jan. 30 elections fall on the 37th anniversary of the Tet offensive, the Vietnam War turning point that could hold lessons for Iraqi insurgents and U.S. policy makers anticipating more violence that could test American resolve. Iraq's insurgents lack the coordination, manpower and resources to execute the equivalent of the jolting attacks launched by communist forces in nearly every major city in U.S.-backed South Vietnam on the nights of Jan. 30 and Jan. 31, 1968, experts said. But they said the experience of the Tet offensive may show Iraqi rebels how to prevail against a vastly stronger U.S. force, by using audacious attacks to score psychological and political triumphs.

"The fundamental lesson of the Tet offensive is not the immediacy of the event, but it is about the political will of the United States, and how you grind at that and you never let up on that, never lose focus on it," said Marine Col. Thomas Hammes, a leading military expert on insurgencies. Iraq's insurgents, experts said, may try to stage high-profile attacks to disrupt the parliamentary elections -- touted by the Bush administration as a key milepost of progress -- with the same goal as communist forces in Vietnam: making the Americans go home.

"The overall goal is pretty much the same. The United States is a distant intervening power. They (insurgents) are fighting on home turf. And they believe they can outlast the United States, and that ultimately the American people will tire of that mission, particularly if they can inflict enough casualties," said Cato Institute defense analyst Ted Carpenter.

The White House last week acknowledged that the elections would probably be "less than perfect," due to violence, but insisted that they proceed.

more........


Marines battling with VC/NVA sniper fire behind a wall near the enemy-held Citadel in Hue.