This past week, the Egyptian newspaper al-Akhbar editorialized on a theme repeated periodically in the Arab press ever since US-led forces invaded Saddam Hussein’s Iraq at the start of this year. As the editorial puts it, “The US has obviously not absorbed the hard lesson it was taught in the Vietnam war.”
Referring to “55 thousand Americans... killed during combat operations...” in Vietnam, the Egyptian newspaper states, “The Bush Administration has dragged its military to a similar fate in Iraq. It is repeating the same mistakes over and over again.” The newspaper notes, “the number of troops sent were more than 500,000. Still, no victory was achieved there [in Vietnam]. ...In the end, they withdrew, burdened with defeat and heavy losses.”
Not just the US defeat and demoralization in Vietnam will be repeated today in Iraq, according to al-Akhbar, but as in Vietnam “American soldiers were... involved in killing POWs, raping women and wiping out whole villages...” so, too, the Egyptian editors claim, “[m]any of the crimes committed by American soldiers in Vietnam are repeated now in Iraq.”
On a strategic level, as well, the Egyptian newspaper finds parallels between the US war in Vietnam and in Iraq: “In both instances partitioning was America's main goal. To achieve this, banned weapons were used, human rights violated and puppet regimes installed.”
In conclusion, al-Akhbar concludes, as have many other Arab newspaper editors and commentators, that “[i]n all probability, the US is heading towards a Vietnam-like disaster.”
Referring to “55 thousand Americans... killed during combat operations...” in Vietnam, the Egyptian newspaper states, “The Bush Administration has dragged its military to a similar fate in Iraq. It is repeating the same mistakes over and over again.” The newspaper notes, “the number of troops sent were more than 500,000. Still, no victory was achieved there [in Vietnam]. ...In the end, they withdrew, burdened with defeat and heavy losses.”
Not just the US defeat and demoralization in Vietnam will be repeated today in Iraq, according to al-Akhbar, but as in Vietnam “American soldiers were... involved in killing POWs, raping women and wiping out whole villages...” so, too, the Egyptian editors claim, “[m]any of the crimes committed by American soldiers in Vietnam are repeated now in Iraq.”
On a strategic level, as well, the Egyptian newspaper finds parallels between the US war in Vietnam and in Iraq: “In both instances partitioning was America's main goal. To achieve this, banned weapons were used, human rights violated and puppet regimes installed.”
In conclusion, al-Akhbar concludes, as have many other Arab newspaper editors and commentators, that “[i]n all probability, the US is heading towards a Vietnam-like disaster.”