California Conservative

Is Iraq another Vietnam? Not according to soldiers serving in Iraq who are also Vietnam veterans.

Tom Clarkson, who reported the story and serves with the Army Corps of Engineers, has spoken with 60 such veterans in Iraq and their ages range from 51-70 (our parish priest is active duty & 70, recently returning from Iraq. Here is Fr. Kelley celebrating Mass in front of one of Saddam’s palaces).

One of the main ways soldiers say Iraq is different from Vietnam is that in Iraq we are training Iraqis to care for themselves: “Give a man a fish and he eats for one day. Teach him to fish and he eats for the rest of his life.” We have trained Iraqi Police, Iraqi Military, Iraqi Special Forces (who are pretty HOOAH!), Iraqi security… and don’t believe Cindy Sheehan when she tries to accuse Pres. Bush of saying we are now in Iraq to guard Iraqi oil. The fact is that oil is the biggest industry of export in Iraq and Pres. Bush was right to say that we cannot let terrorists take over the oil in Iraq; that would cripple the economy as well as fund the terrorists. Ms. Sheehan cannot concede progress so she must twist it.

Reconstruction projects to improve the quality of lief for Iraqis has employed over 21,000 Iraqis through the Project and Contracting Office. Iraqis now have Internet, improved education (from primary schools through university), improved health care/hospitals, an increase of luxury items like satellite dishes, TVs, VCRs, DVDs, air-conditioning units and so on.

The US in Iraq is emphasizing self-government. We are winning the hearts and minds of Iraqis. Not all, but most. Ask the average Iraqi if he is glad for the US intervention is Iraq’s affairs. The answer will be “yes.”

RELATED
Iraq is NOT Vietnam

Cross-posted at The Roundtable

This entry was posted on Friday, September 23rd, 2005 at 8:41 am and is filed under Author: Amy Proctor, Iraq, Military. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.