Re: Ace in the hole
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Are we reading the same article? I read the entire thing and to me, the theme was Iraq is not Vietnam and here are some lessons from Vietnam to make sure Iraq doesn't turn into Vietnam.
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The theme to me seems to be that there are a variety of very clear parallels between the two wars and that we can learn from both the mistakes and success stories in Vietnam. I don't see how you could possibly interpret the theme of the article to be the lack of meaningful resemblance between the two wars.
Summarizing the points underneath each header...
1) We should have stayed the course in Vietnam but did not. Facing a similar situation today, we should stay the course.
2) Vietnamization should have been implemented from the beginning, and was a good idea. Iraqification should have been implemented from the beginning, and is a good idea.
3) Both wars got off to bad starts because they were based on faulty intelligence assessments.
4) In both wars, the administrations did poor jobs at "marekting the war" to the public. Bush can learn from the mistakes of Vietnam in this respect.
5) In both wars, one of the most difficult tasks was "building a new society from the ground up." The societies intended were different but some general lessons can be drawn.
Etc.
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