The Not-So-Vietnam

As the election looms, creeping ever closer to first week of November, it's certain that the Iraq War will not only be an issue, but perhaps one of the clinching aspects of both the Kerry campaign and the Bush Administration. May 1, 2003 found President Bush declaring an end to the major combat operations regarding Iraq. With military strongholds in Baghdad crumbling, and the Republican guard virtually non-existent (all within the span of a month), it was rather evident that the end to major combat was in sight, if not present. Then came guerilla warfare. From the Fedayeen to radical Shiite clerics, fanatics, and psychos, American deaths came at a steady, but miniscule rate. Unfortunately, as we all know, the American media has long decided that the United States will never win another war - at least not in the eyes of the 'respectable' news mediums.

Enter comparisons to Vietnam. Being bombarded from every angle by the most ridiculous predictions for America's loss of the war, the comparison to Vietnam was the most implausible. It's more that factual on a number of levels. First fact: Vietnam is a highly forested, jungle area, which is swamped by monsoons in the north during rainy seasons, and suffers through tropical climates in the South. Iraq, on the other hand, experiences dust-filled, parched hot summers over a desert terrain that covers the majority of the landscape. Vietnam's terrain was prime reason why American soldiers nearly 11,000 deaths from disease and ailment alone. Malaria, to name one, was highly common in the humid, dank environment. Iraq on the other hand, isn't exactly the Jungle of the Middle East. Treacherous none the less, but not nearly enough as to cause such an exorbitant amount of diseased fatalities, Iraq's climate is scorching, to say the least (highs successively exceeding the 100 degree plateau), and the urban structure is remarkably different than the structures of Vietnam. Friends, this is this first in a series of facts that make the case undeniable.

On a more violent scale, the length of the Vietnam war effort is five times that of the current Iraqi War (90 months in Vietnam to 18 in Iraq). Over the span of 90 months in Vietnam, which calculates to some 2800 odd days of combat, a total of 58,168 Americans were killed. Yes, that's killed. No, that doesn't include the 153,303 that were wounded. In comparison to the war in Iraq, which has lasted 18 months thus far (some 550 odd days) has found the deaths of 1,803 coalition casualties. That's the coalition made up of 15 major countries. How the numbers of Vietnam, where massive numbers of American boys were slaughtered, can be even remotely compared to the war in Iraq is beyond me.

To further the point, and the comparison, the Vietnam War found an average of 526 Americans killed per month. Over the span of one year in Iraq, there was a grand total of 702 coalition deaths. Vietnam = 526 deaths per month. Iraq = 58 deaths per month. Again, it's hard to argue the numbers in a case that's made by statistics and facts. On a grander scale: Vietnam = 6,300 deaths per year. Iraq = 702. The yearly Vietnam fatality count is nearly eight times greater than that of coalition forces in Iraq. Eight times greater. It's hard for the facts to get much more real than this. It's rather funny, actually, how any comparison to Vietnam is accepted at all. If there was to be a statistic that would scrape the service of fitting comparison, it's the Revolutionary War. On a monthly combat death basis, combatants of the Revolutionary War suffered 55 deaths per month. However, that war was fought over a period of 80 months, and a grand total of 4, 435 deaths. Yet again, another unworthy comparison to the war in Iraq.

Frankly, the Iraq War is too young to be deemed anything close to Vietnam. With a whopping 57, 000 deaths yet to be had, and 72 months yet to be spent in the deserts and cities, Iraq's numbers are microscopic when compared to those of it's counterpart in the South Pacific. Vietnam was the most intense struggle of the modern war era, and though Iraq's war is a serious matter in it's own right, it comes nothing close of deserving the Vietnam brand. Unless our Shiite radical friends (now swarming into rank under the cleric Muqtada al Sadr) begin donning those stylish Hanoi hats, drop nuclear bombs on a mildly populated city in the American Midwest, and pledge their allegiance to Ho Chi Minh - Iraq just isn't Vietnam.