Hi Hawkmoon; Re: "Not to sound callous, but Iraq IS a "small" shooting war, when compared to previous conflicts such as Vietnam. Combat actions have essentially declined to small unit "search and destroy", and "snatch and grab" missions, on the offensive, while the remainder are involved in stabilization and security operations (quickly being turned over to Iraqi forces)."
You only have 5 months of experience occupying Iraq to compare with a decades long experience in Vietnam. Iraq is small now, but it is heating up at a rate of about 40% month over month for the past 5 months. (see: #reply-19327931 , and for latest data see #reply-19350107 ) That kind of growth rate is how small wars become big, and note that US KIA in Vietnam in 1964 were only 137, and 1965 only saw 1,369. (See #reply-19338676 for the full data, and a comparison with Korea). Already Iraq has seen more of our guys killed in the 5 months since the end of "major hostilities" than Vietnam saw in all of 1964.
By the way, do you remember back when I made the statement that resistances to occupations typically don't begin until after the first 6 months of occupation? Until we are past the first year, with an occupation that still "only" kills a few Americans per day, can we safely say that this is not Vietnam. I'm hoping, but it doesn't look good, not with that 40% growth in IED attacks, month over month.
-- Carl |
