Iraq

I'm so fed up with people trying to tell me that this current war in Iraq isn't another Vietnam. If it isn't, why is our government trying to tell the military what to do (just like Vietnam)? Did we not learn our lesson from previous wars? You let the military decide how to get from A to B. The government only states the objectives. This worked extremely well during the first Gulf War. That was "shock and awe" delivered right to Saddam's patio. Now, eh, "not so much" I hate to say.
If this isn't another Vietnam, explain to me why young men are dying and their parents are asking why they were even sent there (just like Vietnam). When the objectives and reasons are clear, no one asks why. Did our great-grandparents ask why their sons died when they went off to war in the 40s? Nope, they ALL understood why. We don't have that now.
I still don't understand why we went to war. It surely wasn't for democratic reasons - we still can't get the Iraqis on their own feet. I don't think it was for oil - our gas prices are going up and up and up... Nonstop it seems! I highly doubt it was to "find weapons of mass destruction" - anyone that thought Saddam would keep them when he knew we were coming isn't thinking logically in even the slightest. He probably gave or sold them to Iran thinking he could survive it like he did the first time around or Iran would get much more use out of them. That's supposing they EVER really existed. Which, even in my skeptical mind, is a possibility.
I don't know. The only thing that even comes close to making any sense as to why we went off to war is because either we wanted to get rid of a tyrant (which, Saddam definitely was) to prove we could do it since we failed in the case of Fidel Castro; or our president was itching to get back at Saddam for trying to assasinate his dad years ago. It has been reported that the current president had been planning a war in Iraq since before the terrorist attacks. So obviously this was something on Mr. Bush's mind at least since he was elected. I'm not trying to suggest that he allowed or hoped the terrorists would attack us, I'm only suggesting he used the situation as an excuse to start a "holy war" to help his poll numbers.
Whatever your views on whether this is another Vietnam or not, I think most of us Americans - and most citizens of Planet Earth - agree we need to get out of Iraq. We're not accomplishing nothing there; they've been fighting there amongst themselves for centuries. We need to pull out, let our soldiers get some time off, then send them back into Afghanistan and find Osama and all his friends! Let's fight the war where it should be fought, for the right reasons, until we truly achieve mission accomplishment.