"We believe this essential to safeguard the freedom of South Vietnam, and to save the lives of those South Vietnamese, Americans, Australians, New Zealanders, and Koreans who are fighting to ensure that freedom." (June 29, 1966)
On June 29, 1966, in a large escalation of the Vietnam War, American aircraft bombed the major North Vietnamese cities of Hanoi and Haiphong for the first time. The same day, Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara appeared before the press to defend the bombings. As McNamara explained, it was hoped that by bombing Hanoi, the capital of North Vietnam, and Haiphong, the country's largest port, communist forces would be deprived of essential military supplies and thus the ability to wage war. However, in the face of what grew into the largest bombing campaign in history, the Vietcong and the North Vietnamese showed an impressive resilience, thwarting U.S. efforts to bring a successful end to an increasingly unpopular war. In addition, North Vietnamese leader Ho Chi Minh placed the destruction of U.S. bombers in the forefront of his war effort, and by 1969, over 5,000 American planes had been lost. In 1970, President Richard M. Nixon began withdrawing U.S. troops, but intensified bombing across Indochina in an effort to salvage the embattled war effort. Finally, in 1973, a Vietnam peace agreement was signed in Paris, bringing an end to the U.S. military involvement in the Vietnam War. It is estimated that over 100,000 North Vietnamese civilians were killed in U.S. bombing attacks.
There was too much at stake with possibly the Chinese and also the Soviet Union. You may recall that during the bombing runs certain parts of Haiphong Harbor were off limits because Soviet Ships were in the Harbor and we were afraid to hit them. This was not a declared war but a conflict and the Soviets and Chinese were supplying all types of weapons. Just like Korea where we did not want to attack over a certain parallel because of fear the Chinese would enter the war (some say they did anyway).
There is no way we would have won Vietnam as we had really no dog in the hunt. Just like there is no way we will win in Iraq. In Vietnam we needed the Vietnamese to fight their own battles which took us a long time to accomplish - it was called Vietnamization.
In Iraq we need the Iraqi's to fight their own battles but against who? Of all the prisoners we have captured in Iraq only 600 are foreigners. Who is the enemy?
I suspect that if we leave then the foreigners will leave as well - no more Americans to kill. The population will then engage in a civil war if they are not happy with the constitution - which is the issue. The Sunni's will fight on because I just don't see them winning with the Shiites population and the history of the past abuses. The Kurds just want their piece up North where Turkey will eliminate them if they break away from Iraq (so we could have a role here protecting them from Turkey). Of course the Kurds will demand the oil fields of the North as well. Iran will not want anything but an Islamic country. It's a mess and like Vietnam will take many more American deaths before our politicians will need to find "Peace with Honor" again.
I say tell the Iraqi's we will leave right after they agree on a constitution which has to be agreed to within six months. If not then Bye Bye. If they don't want to govern themselves then it's not worth it.
A: What were the stated Military Objectives in Kosovo?
B: Did the Serbs stop us from achieving those objectives?
If one answers the above two questions properly I maintain that a good argument could be made that the Serbs won militarily.
Asserting that we won militarily in Kosovo is a hard core delusion.
If one measures who won militarily in terms of who destroys more dollar amounts of military goods the Serbs did pretty well on that front in one simple shot when that teeny tiny low tech country became the first country to shoot down the mighty invisible stealth bomber. How much does a stealth bomber cost? I don't think we even came close to causing that kind of dollar damage on their miniature military machine.
On the political front the Serbs beat us black and blue till Clinton and Albright got on their knees and begged for mercy and we are still paying a seriously high price from the viewpoint of a hard core Hawk. I for one never realized the depth of perversion in our Military escapades. I was not the only one to notice that the Clintonistas bombed maternity wards using smart bombs. The bombing of Kosovo was excellent advertizing for the peace movement. Europe would have been a lot easier to bring on board and keep on board in Iraq if it were not for the brutal bombing of Kosovo. Teeny tiny Serbia backed down the combined forces of the U.S.A. and all of N.A.T.O. because we had NO military plan.
And all this for what!?!
The Clintonistas did not even have to claim WMD or that the U.S. was threatened by Serbia.
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