The operation to recover the missing troops is not like the "hammer and anvil" operations in Vietnam. It is more of a flooding of the zone and staying until something is uncovered. It has resulted in some intelligence and some arrest and it has had the effect of making it impossible for al Qaeda to move. If nothing else it demonstrates what can be done if we have enough troops to dominate an area.

We should also avoid overselling the "insurgency" in Vietnam. The insurgency there failed in the early sixties and was destroyed in the Tet offensive. It evolved into North Vietnamese large units maneuvering in a raiding strategy that was also not successful at defeating the South Vietnamese until the communist opted for combat persisting mechanized attacks in the mid 70's.

BTW, Crittenden's account as an embed in Operation Iraqi Freedom gives an excellent report of the operations of the unit he was with.