Quote:
Originally Posted by Azure
The government retreated with their tails between their legs...actually, make that the Democrats.
|
congress cut the funding, ending the war.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Azure
Nixon was doing a pretty good job getting out of Vietnam until Watergate.
|
'vietnamization'. yeah, carpet bombing your way to retreat.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Azure
The SEALs did their job...and probably can, better then any other Special Forces group in the world.
|
properly applied they are at best a mediocre special force, far inferior to british SAS to name only one. they have fancy goggles though.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Azure
And I doubt Iran would be harder then Vietnam...Iraq is a small compared to what happened in Vietnam. 4000 deaths compared to 50,000...makes a big difference.
|
3000+ is only the guys that die on the field of battle, KIA's. when you die on a plane to germany or on a hospital operating table you're not counted. try maybe 10,000.
and the actual combat intensity, or average engagements per soldier per day, iraq is way more taxing than vietnam, where most of the soldiers were guarding the whorehouses and supply depots and opium dens and staging bases from enemy encroachment. if every one of the million men had trooped through the jungle on a massive 'sweep and clear', well, it wouldn't have dragged on forever and ever, and the million hueys wouldn't have been made by johnson's best buddy, etc.
kill ratios are very useless when fighting a guerilla war, where you can win every battle and still lose. the only successful counter-insurgencies i can think of are the brits in malaysia - probably more but that's the one that springs to mind. problem is, they actually tried to win that one.