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Arginald Valleywater,


I know the U.S. government picks and chooses who it goes after. We want say anything to Saudi Arabia. But at the end of the day Iraq is a better place today, then under Saddam.

jimslip wrote:


>
> Look at Vietnam, over 7,000,000 tons of bombs were dropped by
> the US and in the end the war was won by a bunch of little guys
> with AK47's, cunning and a gut load of moral fortitude!
>

That's a bit of a canard I'm afraid. North Vietnam attempted three major invasions of South Vietnam in 1968, 1972 and 1975. The last one was successful, after the Americans had left their allies to their fate. You may remember the pictures of North Vietnamese tanks rolling into the grounds of the Presidential Palace in Saigon in 1975. South Vietnam fell to a major conventional invasion from the North, using tanks, artillery, infantry and the full equipment of a conventional army. The Viet Cong guerilla campaign was a major problem for the South, but would never have brought it down, the North realised that only a major conventional invasion would do this, and it was a case of third time lucky.

The Viet Cong were almost completey destroyed after the 1968 Tet offensive. In 1972, the ARVN (South Vietnam Army) beat them back with support U.S. units. The ARVN provided most of ground forces during 1972-75. We had 300 casualties in combat for all of 1972, most of whom were killed during the 1972 Easter offensive. Vietnam would've never fallen if the U.S. Congress had not withdrew aid to South Vietnam in 1975.

You are dead right Arginald, America is a nation that idolises only one God and that God is the Almighty Dollar! It is morally destitute and will wreak death and destruction on anyone who defies what it believes to be, its unalienable right, to take resources and power from whoever it chooses.

I remember in the early 70's living in Greece and hanging out with a Vietnam vet, with one foot and all he'd ever say was, "We were in there for opium and drugs, no other reason!" You may laugh, but isnt it a coincidence, that even with all the military satellites that can pin point a football lying on the ground, NATO cannot spot and then erradicate the opium fields in Afghanistan and they now are producing and exporting more heroin than ever before!

At the moment it is using the cloak of, "The War on Terror" to first stamp on their so called "Enemies" and then to install their own people to bleed the country of its resources. Can you imagine how much oil has left Iraq, "Off the books?" and naturally the same will be happening in Libya.

The World is one large treasure chest that Uncle Sam feels he has the right to break open and steal the contents thereof and we aid and abet these crimes and benefit in no way at all.

Jimslip:

If the USA decided to fight the Vietnam War to get hold of opium it was a pretty poor decision to say the least. I believe the war cost about $20 billion a year, and that was 1960s dollars. You could have bought a shitload of drugs for that sort of cash. That's not to say the CIA didn't get up to all sorts of murky deals using money from opium to fund its secret wars in Laos and Cambodia, but to come up with the theory that the whole war was about drugs is daft.

Jim Slip,

As Gen Patton would put it, you are a stupid yellow SOB. How many Vietnam veterans have you met? You're just going by one vet statements you met in Greece. Iraqis and Afghans would disagree with your point of view of things. The Iraq oil fields were disrepair for well a decade. They will need much repair before can decent amount of oil "Off the books" for our day demands.

No, they can't stop erradicate the opium fields, Idiot Afghanistan is almost the size of Texas, and we would probably need atleast 5 to 6 times more troops then are current levels to erradicate the opium fields. Most crops look the same from military satellite images.

"I remember in the early 70's living in Greece and hanging out with a Vietnam vet, with one foot and all he'd ever say was, "We were in there for opium and drugs, no other reason!" You may laugh, but isnt it a coincidence, that even with all the military satellites that can pin point a football lying on the ground, NATO cannot spot and then erradicate the opium fields in Afghanistan and they now are producing and exporting more heroin than ever before!"

Given that

the Vietnam War resulted in the loss of nearly 60,000 American soldiers' lives

a 2008 report of the Congressional Review Service of the US Library of Congress has estimated the direct financial cost of the Vietnam War at 111 billion 1975 dollars, which is 676 billion 2008 dollars. However, this is the excess cost over-and-above the estimated cost of maintaining a "normal" military force in peacetime, not the actual total spent.

This strikes me as a bit of a dumb post, even by your lamentable standards.