you seem to think that all we needed to do was punish the NVA enough. Bomb the right target, or roll up the ground. Never mind that we couldn't secure the ground in the south, or that bombing alone has never won a war.
Ironically, you turn around and point out the Chinese card, and of course the Soviet one behind that. Yes, we could take our chances with those fellows, and what are the odds? What would be the likely progress of that expedition?
The problem was simple: all politics is local. The locals almost always prefer their own bastards to the foreign bastards. At least they understand what they're saying.
Sure people have short memories. If all of Iraq hated Saddam, they still have to deal with today's issues today - fighting their own neighbors (foreign and domestic) and getting water & power into their own neighborhoods. The mere presence of armed foreigners is a political aggravation, unless they are handing out Bens, and even that will be taken for granted after a while.
Objectively, you neglect to point out that the city of Chicago hires and trains and pays their own police. That is not true of the Iraqi govt w/r/t the coalition, is it? Do you suppose it makes a difference?
Let me tell you a story. We just got thru installing a PM in Iraq. Do you think he's our man? I know 1 iraqi who claims he was fired by this same fellow, saying, "if you like the Americans so much, go work for the Americans."
THAT is the reality of foreign policy. Look at how much hatred the Mexicans have stirred up when they just come to mow your lawn. Do you think the Iraqis - or ANYBODY - likes foreigners coming and banging on their doors to arrest their sons? Do you think we can turn our back on these fellows for 10 minutes?
Soldiers are not social workers. If you want to win a political campaign, hire an ad agency. You CANNOT make a person like you by pointing a weapon at him. When you point a weapon at him, you may as well go ahead and use it on him, because sooner or later, you will have to.
The press and the hippies did not lose Vietnam, and Murtha will not lose Iraq. Ignorant and disingenous politicians got us into something they couldn't get us out of. It only took McNamara about 3 years to figure it out; but Nixon was much stupider.
Military people typically maintain a positive attitude, as Westmoreland did. However, you have to be objective, and look at the mechanisms of conflict, and the probabilities that the critical things will turn your way to make your plan work. Any plan that involves indefinite policing of a foreign population is an invitation to insurgency.
Don't march your people into a kill zone and then tell them to "stay the course" while you're sitting on your fat ass in an air conditioned office. In my experience, soldiers don't mind going in harm's way, as long as you're not wasting their lives in an unattainable goal. In my view, your first duty to them is, don't waste their lives. And that is pretty much what the Republicans are doing. I have yet to see anybody articulate how US occupation of Iraq for what period of time is going to be a cure that is not as bad as the disease.
It takes real chutzpah for a person to say, jeez, I see no similarities with Vietnam. Or that it's up to me to point out dissimilarities.
That's because the present Republican position is untenable, and they have to resort to lies and BS. And that is precisely why I have no patience. They're liars.