Comparing Iraq and Vietnam

As promised last month, I have been thinking about the similarities and differences between the war we fought 40 years ago and the one we are fighting today.

To begin, both were started as the result of faulty intelligence and theories that just didn't pan out. Both were divisive for Americans since there were strong anti-war groups protesting our involvement. Both have stretched much longer than the administration starting them calculated. It is a point for debate if either was necessary for the security of the United States. Neither war attracted the hoped for allies. Finally, neither could be won on the terms that the administration of the time wanted.

Some gross differences were, the draft. Although many of the soldiers serving in Vietnam were volunteers like me. There was conscription at the time. Quite a few men of draftable age agonized over whether they would have to go and fight. Some even fled to other countries to avoid this. Iraq/Afghanistan is strictly volunteer. Every troop fighting there volunteered for duty in the armed services, even if they did not think, at the time, that they would have to go to war. The attitude of the anti-war movement was distinctly different. Most returning from the present conflict have been welcomed whether people agreed with the war or not. Vietnam returnees were greeted with hostility, even violence against them. The wounds caused by that reception have not yet healed for many.

In Vietnam, the US was supporting a government, a corrupt, inefficient government to be sure, but a government. While elections have been held in both Iraq and Afghanistan, the elected governments there are powerless beyond the security of their capitols. Without an effective central government, both countries will either continue in violence or the power will be ceded to local leaders.

Forty years ago, our troops were fighting just two opponents, the North Vietnamese Army and the Viet Cong. In Iraq/Afghanistan, there more factions than I can count fighting each other and the US. It is this high number of combatant groups, with mostly different objectives that makes the job in the mid east very difficult.

The United States is faced with what is called "non-centric" warfare. That is, instead of a capitol like Hanoi or fixed bases, the mid eastern opponents are dispersed through the population. Command and control are accomplished in many cases, without the individual fighters having to actually meet with their commanders. Unfortunately, that makes the common problem that sometimes a soldier doesn't know which of those people out there are friends and which want to kill him/her.

While in both conflicts, the enemy was flexible and could retake areas left by the Army, there is a difference in Iraq. Soldiers and police are being trained to keep the peace in their neighborhoods, Iraqi soldiers and police who can hold their areas and prevent terrorists from returning... for the present.

The major difference is (I think) that it is possible to achieve peace and stability in Iraq where in Vietnam, it could only happen if we had been prepared to completely conquer North Vietnam and protect both the north and south from their neighbors for at least 30 years. The kind of government that develops in the middle east won't be the type President Bush was thinking of when he pushed for elections. Hopefully, it will be something new that fits the region and religion.

There is more. But I'm going to have to ponder some to be able to write it.

pre-introduction to the wars

Rosalie Lepowski, an old friend has asked me to talk about the Vietnam War and its similarity to the present war in Iraq and Afghanistan. That's going to take some time to think out.

There are certain things that are familiar. Both wars were started from faulty intelligence and bad interpretation of it. In both, by entering, we upset the balance of power and made sure that if we left too soon, there would be very undesirable results.

But there are also some non-congruencies too. In Vietnam, we were supporting a strong, but corrupt government. We paid little attention to establishing real democracy there. Our troops were despised when they came home. In Iraq and Afghanistan, non of these are true. We have tried to establish working democracies in both countries. Each government is weak, not having even enough power to control their capitals, much less the rest of the country. And our soldiers are greeted as heros when they return. Sadly, their return is all too short with many of them starting their third tour in less than five years.

I'm going to think and write more about this.

Changes

As we come into a new year, change should be on everyone's mind. While some change is good and beneficial, other is not. The change that I noticed is in the country, not the United States, but the rural lands that support agriculture.

35 years ago, when I first drove on back roads, everyone I waved to waved back. Some even waved without a start from me. One pathetic specimen saw my beard and gave me the finger. I was on those same roads last week. Not one in five folk responded to my waves, neither the drivers nor the folks on the side of the road. What's happening?

Rural communities are losing their young people. There aren't enough jobs or possibilities to hold them. They leave to seek life elsewhere and seldom return. Even farmers are affected by the current trends... especially that of demanding instant gratification of wishes. Farming just doesn't give a person instant gratification.

There has been a trend toward the idea that a business that doesn't grow dies. That's just not true. Small stores and restaurants have stayed in business for years without needing to grow. They keep their customers by giving them quality products and good service. People come back to them time after time; and their children do it too. The drive to constant growth is mostly driven by the stock market and those who invest in it. It is that drive that has changed business' outlook from the long haul to the next quarter's bottom line. That kind of short sightedness can only hurt, eventually.

None of this is new. An ancient Roman once moaned, "Ah tempore, ah mores." Our mistakes haven't changed much in two thousand years. But then, neither have we.

Happy New Year, 2008

From Christmas to the first of this year, we were in New Mexico with our daughter and grandchildren. We did drive to Phoenix as a family to watch our grandson play hockey as a New Mexico Peewee state teammate. While there, we did some shopping in Scottsdale and went to a Coyote's game to see professional hockey. The Peewees are very good in comparison to the pros. They skate fast and have begun to learn teamwork. It was plenty of fun to see.

Driving home, we did a leisurely, two day trip. The first day was pretty slow since we shopped in the trading and Nambe' stores of Pojoaque. We left New Mexico poorer in wallet, but richer in art.

Since we came back to Little Rock, we have been busy sorting and answering mail. I am almost caught up on the bills which arrived while we were out of town. I have also trimmed my phone messages down to just three for action. I suppose that I should be grateful that people want to talk to me. Alas, so many of them want to propose ways of transferring money from my bank account to theirs.

Little Kitty has been most solicitous since my return. In fact, he has tried to stay near me or on me since I rescued him from durance vile (the kennel). You can see from the picture that he is a handsome fellow. He also has long, soft fur. When I go to bed, he lies on the pillow with my head. When I sit, he bounces into my lap. He likes to drink from the faucet in the bathroom, but doesn't bother with the kitchen tap. Right now, he's purring in my lap, with his chin resting on my right arm as I type.

Our garden survived the brief spell of very cold weather quite well. One Indian blanket flower is still blooming. I thought that they were strictly summer flowers. Alas, our camelia blossoms were frost burned. This is the third year that they have been damaged before we got a chance to see them. The evergreens, like rosemary are still green, but most of the blooms are waiting for warmer weather to show.

In the hopes that you, gentle reader, had a delightful holiday season, please accept my best wishes for the new year.

Neighbors

Fall has lived up to its name. The leaves have fallen and I am busy picking up the ones that are not wanted in the garden for mulch. That brings me to a pet peeve. We have a neighbor who is, in most respects, very nice. But the leaves that fall in their yard aren't picked up until mid-December. That means I have to keep cleaning out our gardens because their leaves blow into our yard.
I don't think that they are doing it to annoy me. I suspect they're too cheap to pay to have the leaves removed more than once. I really can't say anything because they are retired teachers and might have to economize. But I can complain here. They don't use the Internet.
It's odd that some neighbors are wonderful and stay friends long after you or they move away and some, you never get to know at all. I guess I've been lucky. We've never had a truly rotten neighbor. Example: I remember a friend of my parents while I was growing up. He sued people. Sometimes it seemed as if he was consciously setting them up for a court case. Other than that, he was a bright, nice guy. But I'm really happy that we didn't live right next door to him.
There's a term that I hear used in the country, "neighborly". I can't give it a precise definition, only cite examples of "neighborliness". If, for example there is a hail storm coming, the neighborly will let people who have no garages park in his shed to protect their cars. Or if someone is putting up a fence and a neighbor has a post hole digger, he'll offer it to the guy putting up the fence. I don't think that I've managed to get a real hold on "neighborly", but I hope you know what I mean.

Book review

For some years, I reviewed romances for Compuserve. It was enjoyable and I got free books in the process. Even after Compuserve shut down its review board, I kept reading romance novels for the fun of it. But the last one I bought was a little disappointing.

"A Dash of Scandal" by Gloria Dale Skinner, writing as Amelia Grey
Jove Books, 2002
ISBN: 0-515-13401-5

The title attracted me. It was obviously a Regency romance. Ever since I read Jane Austen's stories, that period has held enjoyment. The story is of a country girl who visits an aunt in London for 'the season'. Her aunt is a gossip columnist and has had a fall which precludes her going to parties and gathering gossip. She persuades her niece to do the gathering while she continues to write her column. The niece meets a naughty earl and falls in love with him. In the mean time, a thief has been stealing from the homes at which the parties are held, including the earl's. After some misunderstanding, the niece and the earl form a team to catch the thief. He falls in love with her and all ends well.

A cute story and very well written. But there is a problem for me. The author has her characters saying some things that reek of Regency and others that might have come from her local high school right now. Her character's actions are not those of a pair of Regency gentles. In fact, they might have been a pair of high school lovers in Regency dress up.

Of course, each costume change of our heroine is detailed by the author. She also provides details of the dress of other female characters and some of the males... sometimes. I'm not sure if this is 'de rigeur' for a modern Regency writer. But between skipping those descriptions and the protracted, unlikely love scenes, this book was a very quick read.

It's not that I didn't enjoy the reading. The problem was more in non-Regency charactizations and speach. I think that Ms. Dale Skinner should re-read "Pride and Prejudice" to see what actions were more probable in the gentles of that period.

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