Remember the "Domino Theory"?

[panader0]

War hawks during the Vietnam War used that theory to back up their presence in Vietnam. If we don't succeed there, they argued, the whole of Southeast Asia, and then even more countries will fall like dominoes. Well, it seems to me that Vietnam is doing pretty good now, their so called "civil war" ended when the US left and the US puppet government folded. See any similarities?

[ck4829]

1. We are witnessing a reverse domino

The entire region has become more unstable since we invaded Iraq.

[Warpy]

7. Yes, and the Vietnam War spilled over into Laos, Cambodia

and even into Thailand via minor skirmishes.

The similarities are astonishing. I keep feeling as though this is where I came in, who hid the exit signs?

Another similarity is that both wars were dreamed up by a bunch of wonks in the Pentagon who were absolutely sure of their supreme knowledge, but who turned out in the end to have completely misunderstood history, geography, and the geopolitics of the entire reagion.

Once is a mistake. Twice is the beginning of a very bad habit. The Pentagon needs its mission redefined into a purely defensive one and the Pentagon needs to be put on a strict diet.

Enough.

[nevergiveup]

2. It is the same

psychology. Get them over there before they get us here. Communists were the terrorists of the time.

[DemBones DemBones]

4. And, as in Afghanistan, we went into Viet Nam after others had given up

on pacifying the country. The French were there for years and I think the Brits before them. In Afghanistan, the Brits were there, then the Russians, now us. And we're not winning there, either.

[DemBones DemBones]

3. Sure do. Sadly, PNAC looks at the world as a chessboard and

wants to take on Iran, Syria, Egypt and North Korea. (The list is longer but I'm not sure of all the MidEast countries; I think Lebanon and Jordan are also targets.) How dare they look at other nations as pawns?

And then, I guess, we'll whomp China. :eyes:


But to get back to your point, indeed Viet Nam "fell" to communism after we left but I don't know of any other dominos in SE Asia falling and, as you said, the country seems to be doing well now.

We can't solve the problems we've stirred up in Iraq. We should get out and let the UN send peacekeeping forces in to help. The Iraqis might be willing to work with UN forces, especially if the UN can send a lot of Arabs and/or Muslims.

[leftofthedial]

6. PNAC is basically a bunch of amoral losers

who could never win at Risk during their protracted adolescences, despite trying for 20 hours a day every day

[gravity]

5. There was a government to take over Vietnam when we left

In Iraq, we would have the power vacuum, which would just create more bloodshed as there would be a civil war for control of the country.

While there are many similarities between Vietnam and Iraq, each one has there own unique circumstance and it would be a mistake to apply a strategy that worked on Vietnam on Iraq. Vietnam was more of a conventional war compared to the challenges in Iraq we face today.