The current situation in Iraq has been drawing comparisons to the Vietnam War for some time now, and one can’t really argue with the fact that there are similarities.  From the original goals of instilling new governments in unstable areas to the enemies’ reactions in the form of dangerous insurgencies that we don’t seem to have the will power to stop, the two wars have been taking similar courses since their inceptions.  

What’s slightly disappointing about the way Vietnam is often brought up is the context under which it’s being done.  People aren’t making this comparison to give our children a history lesson or to enlighten us as American citizens.  The word “Vietnam“ conjures up certain images and thoughts about the way the U.S. government handled a foreign war, the way our people responded to it domestically, and what happened when these two philosophies clashed.  

Comparing what’s going on now to a war without a resolution is ultimately meaningless and, more directly, useless.  Vietnam wasn’t a success and, if 30 years later we’re still making the same mistakes with no plausible recommendations or answers, then the left, the right, the center, and every other opinionated faction still hasn’t learned anything from the war in question.

Anybody can look back at past mistakes and point out that they’re mistakes.  It’s a weak argument.  OK, so it’s another Vietnam… What are you going to do about it?

By referring to “Our Vietnam” or “Bush’s Vietnam,” people are taking a good idea and turning it into an ineffective partisan issue.  The U.S.’s involvement in the Vietnam War ended over thirty years ago.  Maybe there are people out there searching for some vestige of this past era, but there’s no longer a purpose in making comparisons which at this point serve as little more than political rhetoric.  

In terms of the polarizing message people are trying to get across with a Vietnam comparison, this isn’t another Vietnam.  There’s no draft, and most young people out there don’t know what’s going on in Iraq and probably don’t care.  So as far as it being a culturally divisive issue on the home front, it’s not.  

The comparison is still an interesting one because another debacle is happening so soon after the original, but the fact that it was allowed to happen again is something nobody should be proud of.  Since we do live in the year 2006 and not 1968, some of our leaders might want to consider figuring out how to fix “Our Iraq” rather than making sure that we all understand it’s becoming another Vietnam.  

Finding a parallel in a war most people have since recognized to be a failure militarily, politically, and strategically is a good reminder of what can happen when foreign policy goes wrong, but without a solution to how that war or this war should be handled, its effects seem to be intended to produce wins at the polls, not on the battlefield.

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