Iraq war is going to end up like Vietnam. I  am sure of it. You agree?
343462
This war has seen the least amount of soldier casualties than were imagined.  More people die in traffic accidents in a year than in the war.\n\nBy the way, as far as the vietnam war, did you know that a general in the north vietnam army said that they were beaten, and ready to surrender, but the only thing that kept them going was seeing the american demonstrations.  People like Jane Fonda, and the protesters in the U.S. got servera thousand American soldiers killed.\n\nIf you really want to count numbers, count how many innocent civilians Saddam has murdered.  I know he gassed at least 30 thousand Iraqi kurds once.  \n\nAnd most Iraqi people do not want the soldiers to leave immediately!  They want them to leave when their countrymen can protect them.  Get your facts straight!!!\n\nedit*    P.S. can anyone explain why the U.S. military  recruitment is at an all time high?  I hope you remember that our military is voluntary right now.
857477
I would love to say yes it is. But we can't leave now with the mess Iraq is in. I don't think we should have ever gone over there, we did. We can't leave them with this Chaos,  they have nothing in place to deal with any of this violence.We have to finish what we started. If we leave now, it only makes us look worse than we already look. I think it will be a long time before our troops can come home, unfortunately.
791609
Absolutely correct, buddy. Exactly the same as Vietnam, declare victory and then pull out. But there's still victory in Iran and North Korea, yet.
1072268
I think he served his country honorably in Vietnam but has become Vietnam-obsessed and just repeats his assertion that Iraq is unwinnable. We have  removed Saddam, killed his sons, killed Zarqawi, established a democracy that people actually participate in (even more than they do here) and trained thousands of Iraqis to take over when we are gone. We have made enormous strides in just 3 short years.\n\nSGT/USMC 2000-2004
25167
When Iraq becomes Americanized...
381204
What do you think? America will still be America, and Bush will be out of Power; hallelujah! Oh, and Halliburton won't be running (ruining) the war in Iraq. You wonder why we are winning?
683527
Blah. I wonder this myself constantly.\n\nI personally believe no good will come out of this. I was discussing this with my American History professor, and she and I agree: this war is just another Vietnam. It started as a civil war Americans had no right involving themselves with, and now it has become extremely long and an absolute waste of our time.\n\nI absolutely hate people who say "It's for their own good; I know THEY don't think so, but it is." Who are we to decide what's best for others? Just because it works well for us (SUPPOSEDLY) it is the SUPREME form of government?! We are not those people's parents, their mother, their father, to determine what is best for them. We are a Super Power, yes, but we are not in control of other human's lives. There is nothing about Americans that makes us superior to Iranians, to Russians, to Australians, to anyone. \n\nIf our economy is rising, it is because we're producing machines for war. That's the concept plus Keynesian "priming the pump" that got us out of the Great Depression. And then, of course, the economy went into a slump afterward, so there you go. \n\nPeople believe this is a moral war. All it's doing is making forgein peoples hate us more for the common American attitude of superiority and "city on a hill"ishness from the Puritanical days. It's creating tension that doesn't need to be there that will hurt us and many people in the near future. We aren't "defending democracy." We aren't trying to "free" the Iranians. It's all a load of self-interest and a fake sense of superiority. \n\nI doubt Americans have any intention of paying for this war or any of their other debts. Most large powers don't. We learned before WWII not to demand repayment such as war reparations, because those played a large part of getting us into that particular war. \n\nAlso, I heard on NPR that Bush was thinking of changing the name from the "War on Terror" to the "Long War." \n\n"Blind patriotism." My thoughts exactly. Anyone who will follow something so blindly as to refuse to see the reality that the people Bush is making into our "enemy" are humans just like us is an idiot and should be ashamed of themselves. \n\nYes, at one point in time there WERE "weapons of mass destruction." Bush Senior gave them to them because they were afraid of being invaded by their neighbors. The U.S. had and has oil interests there and needed to preserve them, and so President Bush Senior gave them those weapons. U.S.-crafted. That is factual.\n\nBut whether or not they existed when our present President went in to look for them is VERY dubious. I and many intellectuals I know, some of them conservative while I am liberal, agree with me that it was a matter of oil interests. America hasn't been an independent oil-supply for a very long time now, and we are a highly mobile society. Hence there is a problem. \n\nFrance used to respect the U.S., during JFK’s presidency in the Cuban Missile Crisis, because it was its belief that we would never invade a country without solid proof. Do you see what has happened to America? In just forty short years, considering we are already such a young country, our foreign policy has turned from a very loved president’s, JFK’s, to George W. Bush’s aggressive, half-cocked launching of human beings blinded by patriotism for oil interests.
843423
Regardless of when the troops are withdrawn, there will probably be a Civil War. The present government that came into power with US help and backing realize this, hence they want the US to remain to secure their hold. The nation will probably end up with a strongman style dictatorship, like Saddam's but will be friendly to the US, at first anyway. However,I do not believe, the US is in there for oil, and definately not to win the "Hearts & Minds" of the Iraqies. They are mainly concerned about the 14 military bases being built, which will put the US & her client state, Israel within striking distance of all Arab & Persian territory. Although, I think your suggestion about letting the Iraqi people decide will fall on very deaf ears. If there was honesty involved about the war, I would think your idea would be the best way to let go of the tiger's tail...BUT??????????
173709
this war is going to be like veitnam long and pointless. bush is over there for oil he is a retard. you have to support the troops cause they are just obeying orders but its the high officialls that need a cap in their a**. i wish this war was over and people wernt dieing and i think this war is going to go on because the candites are just crooks basically you just pick your poison. all you can do is believe in God and pray.
844078
I'm going to take a wild guess and say that by 12/19 the Iraq war will have lasted longer than World War 2.
786132
The USA is obsessed with the concept of world dominance. It has refused to  learn from history and its experience in Vietnam. It could not prevent Vietnam from being a communist  state. It had fueled Afghanistan crisis and now trying to dose it off. Withdrawal from Iraq and Afghanistan will not be that easy and the change of guard in White House will have least impact on taking such a decision.
571257
i don't know what the final outcome in iraq will be, but i have made this very point to people i know. i heard the same thing in 1969 myself. we were in an unpopular war then, gas prices were soon to rise, people, for the most part, were becoming disillusioned with our government, jobs were soon to start drying up and many were to move overseas, interest rates were starting to rise. sounds like deja vu all over again today, doesn't it?
1068503
Preemptive war is never justifiable. We had no right to invade Iraq and have no right to stay there. Only continuing heavy handed brutality will allow us to remain. When we finally leave, Iraq will disolve into several nations based on the boundaries and ethnic differences that existed prior the British military occupation of that region in 1920. These colors don't run... the world. We have the strongest military force that has ever existed on the planet and are the biggest bullies that exist on the planet today.Propaganda fed to us by the corporate owned media make us see the illusion rather than the truth. Our foreign policy is soley based on what is deemed to promote the interests of our major corporate rulers.
721087
Vietnam had effectively been turned into two countries, like North and South Korea.  The war was North Vietnam seeking to conquer the South and reunite the country by force.  The fighting in Iraq is nothing like that.  In Iraq, a few terrorists and religious zealots are trying to prevent Iraq from becoming a democracy.  They are funded and supplied from the surrounding countries (Syria, Iran, Saudi Arabia), but no other country is trying to conquer Iraq.\n\nIn Vietnam, we were actually fighting another country, North Vietnam.  That is not true in Iraq.\n\nAlthough it was an integral part of the Cold War, the Vietnam War was an actual war unto itself.  The fighting in Iraq is a part of the War on Terror (stupid name, it should be the War on Islamofascism) but is not really a war by itself.  At least not any more.  Iraq fell within three weeks of our invasion.  The currant Iraqi government is our ally.  The fighting is the US-led coalition and Iraq against the terrorists.\n\nUS fatalities in Vietnam were at about 10 times the rate of fatalities in Iraq.  As wars go, the US fatalities in Vietnam were quite low; US fatalities in Iraq are minuscule.\n\nIts not quite true to say there was no coalition in Vietnam.  The South Vietnamese and the Aussies fought there with us, as did the South Koreans.  The French, of course, bugged out.\n\nThe US force in Iraq hovers between 120,000 and 150,000; the force in Vietnam peaked at over 500,000.\n\nDemocrats supported the war in Vietnam while there was a Democratic President, and turned against it when a Republican was elected.  We will see if their principles are just as flexible now if a Democrat wins in 2008.
364656
Oh, I hope not.  We created a hell hole in Iraq already and have yet to clean up after ourselves.  We are weak in military power and can not stretch any more.  I do not believe we could pull off two military campaigns.
703575
Whether the war is good or bad remains to be seen, 10 ..20 years down the road. The logic goes that if we fight them in their neighbourhood then we don't have to fight it in ours. The problem in Iraq is that Iraq was not a terrorist country to start off, but it is now, once we invaded it. Some will argues that Iraq acts like a magnet drawing the terrorists there, but the war is also creating a lot more future terrorists elsewhere seeking revenge for what we do in Iraq. So we have created more of the very ennemies we seek to destroy. The current war is costing us billions every months; on the flip side, the insurgency use very little money to fight us. I'm afraid that in the long run, it's gonna bankrup our country, that's my prediction. We got out of Vietnam not because we coulnd't win it, but because it would have taken way too long and would have costed way too much money to fight to the end. The insurgency is fighting for their country, it's their homeland; they can stay there forever, but can we???
818731
Its what needs to be down to secure Iraq, but it wont happen because the American people as a whole don't want to be in Iraq.  Americans see Iraq as another Vietnam, but Iraq can't be won unless we see the middle east as we once saw the wild west.