July 24, 2003

QUAGMIRE UPDATE

The peaceniks don’t want another Vietnam in Iraq. And, as James Morrow explains, that’s exactly what they’re getting:

Those who continue to try to play the quagmire card should look at, and recall, the facts. US involvement in Vietnam lasted a decade and cost more than 50,000 US lives. So far, it has been barely four months since US troops first crossed into Iraq, and since the end of major combat on May 2, just 33 US soldiers have been killed by the so-called "Iraqi resistance".

Robert Fisk will probably sue for this unauthorised use of his “so-called” sig line.

Posted by Tim Blair at July 24, 2003 01:33 PM
Comments

As an Israeli, it sounds strange to me to talk about "just" 33 casualties in 4 months.

Maybe it's because of the "small country/big country" thing that people talk about.

Posted by: Tal G. at July 24, 2003 at 10:08 PM

How many Israeli casualties are there in Israel in 4 month?

Posted by: aaron at July 25, 2003 at 12:48 AM

How many in the West Bank and Gaza?

Posted by: craig at July 25, 2003 at 01:52 AM

Well this must be proof that the resistance will keep killing for over 1,500 years.

Posted by: The at July 25, 2003 at 08:42 AM

Yeah, I saw Fisk write about America's 'so-called Task Force 20'
That confused me.
That is the ACTUAL NAME of the task force.
How is that 'so-called'? What am I missing?
Fisk is a so-called journalist.

Posted by: Kyle at July 25, 2003 at 11:15 AM

Another quagmire is just beginning.

Posted by: Jay Manifold at July 26, 2003 at 01:05 AM

Hate to be so cold-bloodedly clinical, but here’s the math –

From May 2nd to July 26th is 86 days.

Let’s tack a couple on and say 36 deaths in 86 days. That is one death every 2.36 days. That is 154.58 US deaths every year.

There were about 54,000 US deaths in Vietnam.

So for our wonderful Lefty friends to get the Vietnam they obviously and forthrightly so desperately want, our occupation and Iraqi resistance will have to last a mere 349 years, four months….. approximate.

Talk about needing to be in for the long haul.


Posted by: Andrew X at July 26, 2003 at 04:00 AM

Whilst its still 10 years, 58,000 troop deaths and 3,000,000 civilian deaths of the vietnam war there are a few similarities.

1. Poor morale amongst U.S troops, probably the lowest in any foreign deployment since vietnam.

2. Americans have gone from playing the hunters to being the hunted. Its not something the are used to.

3. Like in vietnam - do the the U.S government or public really care about the plight of Iraqi citizens

4. The U.S has a much much shorter time frame to finish their business in Iraq, otherwise the American public opinion will sway. If the public opinion

So do you get it? If a combination of poor troop morale, percieved lack of progress by US forces and a substantial public opinion shift occurs, we may very well have a similar politican situation to vietnam. One that could very well cost Bush next year.

Posted by: Andrew P at July 26, 2003 at 02:49 PM