Iraq Isn't Like Vietnam -- Except When It Is

[Culpeper]

Carl:

My first gut reaction to the Iraq-Vietnam compare and contrast was much the same. But we are looking at the platform used to prosecute both conflicts. Not the size and magnitude differences.

The similarities between Iraq and Vietnam are not necessarily on the ground, but in the response of some of our institutions to those situations.

Yes, it is easy to state that the mere casualty rates and the intensity of fighting alone are so much lighter than Vietnam. I have stated the same thing more than once on these forums. Nevertheless, the similarities are the shortcomings that are currently costing lives whether we consider the casualty rate light or not. In that respect, the same mistakes are being made. And it is coming with an opportunity cost.

From an historical perspective, during the Civil War tens-of-thousands of lives in one day was not unusual. During WWI high casualties to achieve a worthless effort was considered acceptable just to find out if an planned offensive was worthwhile or not. During WWII thousands of casualties to take an island that was strategical useful for a short period was considered acceptable. During the Korean Conflict hundreds of casualties were acceptable to take a hill. Just to take the hill with no strategic value. In Vietnam, we ran into conventional warfare as well as counterinsurgency warfare. Nearly 60,000 KIA was not acceptable to America for a "police action". Iraq has turned into a police action counterinsurgency war. Today, the loss of two lives in a forward outpost platoon can be serious because we have, in the past, already lost too many American lives due to police action tactics that didn't work at one time. Overall, the problem is we are not looking that far back in time except for historic statistical purposes. So, today the loss of light casualties are having the same effect on moral as lets say, Hamburger Hill during that particular conflict. It is not because the troops are less aggressive or brave. It is just in this war there are not going to be any Hamburger Hills.

A tax auditor will have a hard time completing an application for a manufacturing tax credit because it is in the nature of the auditor to look for a liability against the taxpayer, when the purpose of the application is to enhance manufacturing in his area. A high ranking commander in Iraq may have a hard time with COIN decisions because it is in his nature to seek out and destroy the enemy with acceptable losses on three fronts; his troops, the enemy, and the population, which will have a negative impact when the actual goal is to enhance our image with the population. We can't do this with acceptable losses of troops and the general population. This is where some are missing the picture on Vietnam as I have in the past. In some places during the Vietnam Conflict the same mistakes are being made in Iraq overall. Not seeing the trees because of the forest. It takes a while to get over it.