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Tuesday, November 30, 2004
A Great Big Mess in a Place Called Vietnam
In an otherwise adequate look at the fighting in Iraq, John F. Burns or his editor, cannot resist comparing the current
action with Vietnam.
Shadow of
Vietnam Falls Over Iraq River Raids (Source
Archive) has got references to jungles and Apocolypse Now sprinkled in with the story of a Marine
search and destroy mission using 40 U.S. Marines and 80 Iraqi commandos.
Granted, we might not have read the article without the bristling headline, but is that a reason to attempt to draw the correlation? The second paragraph admits as much:
That war [Vietnam] is rarely mentioned among the American troops in Iraq, many of whom were not yet born when the last American combat units withdrew from Vietnam more than 30 years ago.
Maybe if we could hear Marines with three or more tours in Vietnam make the comparison we'd listen a bit more intently. Mr. Burns is no slouch and is to be commended for getting dirty and getting the story, but maybe he could leave the analysis to somebody else.
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