[bearcat6]

Here's an interesting take on Vietnam.
The Truth about the Vietnam War - Prager University

 

[IrishCop]

Nice to hear that. But it is a view that I, and a whole lot of guys that I know that were there, have held for a long time.

I have the same trouble with today's wars.

In Vietnam , there were nonsensical rules of engagement that effectively hog tied our troops.

In Vietnam, we would fight and die to take ground...and then leave it for the enemy to move back in.

In a war, you capture and hold real estate. You make it yours...not theirs. You keep advancing until you own it all. That's when you win.

I know that a guerrilla war can be difficult to fight. Hell, we won our independence using that tactic to great effect.

But it can be done. We did it in Iraq. Then we left, way too soon.

I am not saying that I want the next two or three generations of young Americans laying down their lives in a country that refuses to defend itself. I don't.

But if we commit our military personnel to combat, the goal should be to win. If we aren't willing to to what must be done, politically and militarily, then don't even start

 

[WaltGraham]

But if we commit our military personnel to combat, the goal should be to win. If we aren't willing to to what must be done, politically and militarily, then don't even start.

Amen, Brother Kelly.

 

[Kevin Gibson]

In Vietnam, we would fight and die to take ground...and then leave it for the enemy to move back in.

In a war, you capture and hold real estate. You make it yours...not theirs. You keep advancing until you own it all. That's when you win.

Because Vietnam was mostly a Guerrilla war, the DOD felt that body count was much more important than holding ground. Because the enemy was highly mobile and didn't seek to take ground, but just kill their enemy, we decided that we should do much the same. So we sought out the enemy wherever they were and we won pretty much every battle. But we still lost the war.

We repeated that mistake, just to a much lesser degree in Afghanistan and Iraq.

You'll never win a Guerrilla war by just killing the enemy. Every enemy combatant you kill has a family and friends. And when you kill them, you take people who were possibly sitting on the fence and turn them into combatants against you.

The only way to win a Guerrilla war is to cleanse the government of corruption, treat the indigenous with respect, and take away reasons to join the Guerrilla campaign. And you keep doing that until the ranks dry up...that's the conventional thinking.

But the conventional thinking doesn't exactly fit in the ME. In Afghanistan they are extremely uneducated and fanatically religious...that's never a good pairing. In Iraq it's sectarian, and they're just too interested in killing each other.

 

[M1GarandPa]

When I watched the news clips of the American embassy evacuation in 1975, I felt sick to my stomach from a tremendous sense of guilt. As a former Special Forces medic I had gotten to know a number of South Vietnamese soldiers and their families and in my opinion , this country mercilessly stabbed them all in the back.

Every time I pass by the "Nail Spa" at the mall, I look at the Vietnamese manucurists and wonder as to whatever happened to those people. Did they survive the takeover? Have they peacefully adapted to Communistic Rule? Are they still alive today?