The War in Iraq is no Vietnam!

[ALiberalModerate]

The war in Iraq is no Vietnam. Actually, a better comparison could be made to the Soviet’s war in Afghanistan. A Soviet supported coup brings communists to power in Afghanistan in 1978. Later that year an Islamic insurgency takes root and in 1979, the Soviet Union sent large numbers of troops into Afghanistan to quell the insurgency. The Soviet Union quickly took military control of the country and began occupying it. They built roads, schools, hospitals and other forms of infrastructure. However, the insurgency still persisted and it seemed that for every one insurgent the Soviets killed or captured, 5 took their place.

The goals of the Soviet Union were to rebuild the nation, quell the insurgency, establish a pro-Soviet communist government, and train enough Afghan defense forces so that they could defend themselves.

The Soviet Union stayed in Afghanistan from 1979 to 1989.

Total combat deployment was approximately 170,000 troops.

The Soviet Union suffered approximately 14,000 deaths.

The Soviet Union spent approximately 300 billion on the war.

The Soviet Union killed approximately 90,000 Afghan insurgents.

Terrorist actions between the insurgents and pro-Soviet Afghans and resulting Soviet military actions resulted in the deaths of approximately 10% of the Afghan population.

Even after ten years though, they were no closer to breaking the insurgency than they were when they went in.

 

[danarhea]

The war in Iraq is no Vietnam. Actually, a better comparison could be made to the Soviet’s war in Afghanistan. A Soviet supported coup brings communists to power in Afghanistan in 1978. Later that year an Islamic insurgency takes root and in 1979, the Soviet Union sent large numbers of troops into Afghanistan to quell the insurgency. The Soviet Union quickly took military control of the country and began occupying it. They built roads, schools, hospitals and other forms of infrastructure. However, the insurgency still persisted and it seemed that for every one insurgent the Soviets killed or captured, 5 took their place.

The goals of the Soviet Union were to rebuild the nation, quell the insurgency, establish a pro-Soviet communist government, and train enough Afghan defense forces so that they could defend themselves.

The Soviet Union stayed in Afghanistan from 1979 to 1989.

Total combat deployment was approximately 170,000 troops.

The Soviet Union suffered approximately 14,000 deaths.

The Soviet Union spent approximately 300 billion on the war.

The Soviet Union killed approximately 90,000 Afghan insurgents.

Terrorist actions between the insurgents and pro-Soviet Afghans and resulting Soviet military actions resulted in the deaths of approximately 10% of the Afghan population.

Even after ten years though, they were no closer to breaking the insurgency than they were when they went in.

I agree and, at the same time disagree. I agree that Iraq is a quagmire, but possibly with more boots on the ground there, and without the exremely bad political decisions after taking baghdad, such firing the military and police, things would have gone better. Our best shot in Iraq was doing the initial job then getting out immediately.

In regard to Afghanistan, this is the just war we pretty much abandoned so we could invade Iraq. Afghanistan was where we needed to finish the job, capture or kill bin Laden, and take out the Taliban in no uncertain terms. By invading Iraq, we may have possibly lost both wars.