De Ju Vu Moment Remember when we left Vietnam

[lovuian]

I remember when we left Vietnam
More than 3 million Americans served in Vietnam. By war's end, 58,193 soldiers were killed, more than 150,000 were wounded, and at least 21,000 were permanently disabled.<228> Approximately 830,000 Vietnam veterans suffered symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder. An estimated 125,000 Americans fled to Canada to avoid the Vietnam draft,<229> and approximately 50,000 American servicemen deserted.<230> In 1977, United States President Jimmy Carter granted a full, complete and unconditional pardon to all Vietnam-era draft evaders.<231> The Vietnam War POW/MIA issue, concerning the fate of U.S. service personnel listed as missing in action, persisted for many years after the war's conclusion.

Between 1965 and 1975, the United States spent $111 billion on the war ($686 billion in FY2008 dollars).<227> This resulted in a large federal budget deficit.



We also dumped Agent Orange on the population
Between 1961 and 1967, the U.S. Air Force sprayed 20 million U.S. gallons (75,700,000 L) of concentrated herbicides over 6 million acres (24,000 km2) of crops and trees, affecting an estimated 13% of South Vietnam's land. In 1965, 42% of all herbicide was sprayed over food crops. Another purpose of herbicide use was to drive civilian populations into RVN-controlled areas.<233>

As of 2006, the Vietnamese government estimates that there are over 4,000,000 victims of dioxin poisoning in Vietnam, although the United States government denies any conclusive scientific links between Agent Orange and the Vietnamese victims of dioxin poisoning. In some areas of southern Vietnam dioxin levels remain at over 100 times the accepted international standard.<234>


We had a draft


Now Iraq war
The Iraq War (also known as the Occupation of Iraq,<40> the Second Gulf War,<41> and Operation Iraqi Freedom<42>) is a<43> military campaign that began on March 20, 2003,<44><45> with the invasion of Iraq by a multinational force led by troops from the United States and the United Kingdom.<46> The last combat brigade left Iraq on August 19, 2010<47> with approximately 50,000 U.S. troops still remaining in an "advise and assist" capacity. They are scheduled to leave by August 31, 2011, ahead of their required departure of December 31, 2011.

At 5:34 a.m. Baghdad time on March 20, 2003 (9:34 p.m., March 19 EST) the military invasion of Iraq began.<128> The 2003 invasion of Iraq, led by US army General Tommy Franks, began under the codename "Operation Iraqi Liberation",<129> later renamed "Operation Iraqi Freedom", the UK codename Operation Telic, and the Australian codename Operation Falconer. Coalition forces also cooperated with Kurdish Peshmerga forces in the north. Approximately forty other governments, the "U.S.-led coalition against Iraq," participated by providing troops, equipment, services, security, and special forces, with 248,000 soldiers from the United States, 45,000 British soldiers, 2,000 Australian soldiers and 194 Polish soldiers from Special Forces unit GROM sent to Kuwait for the invasion.<130> The invasion force was also supported by Iraqi Kurdish militia troops, estimated to number upwards of 70,000.<131>

US Fatalities






According to a January 2007 BBC World Service poll of more than 26,000 people in 25 countries, 73% of the global population disapproved of US handling of the Iraq War.<337> A September 2007 poll conducted by the BBC found that two-thirds of the world's population believed the US should withdraw its forces from Iraq.<338> According to an April 2004 USA Today/CNN/Gallup Poll, only a third of the Iraqi people believed that "the American-led occupation of their country is doing more good than harm, and a solid majority support an immediate military pullout even though they fear that could put them in greater danger."<339> In 2006 it was found that majorities in the UK and Canada believed the war in Iraq was "unjustified" and - in the UK - were critical of their government's support of US policies in Iraq.<340> According to polls conducted by the Arab American Institute, four years after the invasion of Iraq, 83% of Egyptians had a negative view of the US role in Iraq; 68% of Saudi Arabians had a negative view; 96% of the Jordanian population had a negative view; 70% of the population of the United Arab Emirates and 76% of the Lebanese population also described their view as negative.<341> The Pew Global Attitudes Project reports that in 2006 majorities in the Netherlands, Germany, Jordan, France, Lebanon, China, Spain, Indonesia, Turkey, Pakistan, and Morocco believed the world was safer before the Iraq War and the toppling of Hussein



Osama Bin Laudin said he would bankrupt this nation
and he did

America is in Trillions of Debt and continues to be the World Policeman ...how long does this go on
Its a Deja Vu Moment

and when we leave Afghanistan ...it will be another one