Reply to Rick House

Submitted by Blackspeare (United States), Nov 6, 2006 at 21:56

While there are some parallels between Vietnam and Iraq, there is one main difference----in Vietnam we were fighting a semi sovereign nation, North Vietnam who was supported by two major powers, the PRC and the USSR. In Iraq, while Syria and Iran may support border incursions and supply some munitions, a large occupying force, as stated in my comments and also advocated by Colin Powell, would have quickly stabilized the country, allowed free Iraqi forces to gain strength and more importantly prevented the development of partisan militias which create the illusion of civil war. By now we would have been out of Iraq.

In today's political environment, drawn out wars are unacceptable---in the future the rule will be to enter mightily and exit quickly which is the very essence of the concept of military mobility as you mentioned.

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