Bush’s political and media opponents are having a grand time with his remark that there may be some similarities between Tet, 1968, in Vietnam and Baghdad, in 2006–at least in the way that the enemy is trying to influence American politics. Poor man, he has no way to win with some people. If he says nothing, he’s uncommunicative. If he says something, he’s either blundered or engaging in spin. British military historian John Kagan says he blundered. At least Kagan’s numbers are instructive.
"By January 1968, total American casualties in Vietnam — killed, wounded and missing — had reached 80,000 and climbing…In a bad week in Vietnam, the US could suffer 2,000 casualties. Since 2003, American forces in Iraq have never suffered as many as 500 casualties a month…In any year of the Vietnam war, the communist party of North Vietnam sent 200,000 young men to the battlefields in the south, most of whom did not return. Vietnam was one of the largest and costliest wars in history. The insurgency in Iraq resembles one of the colonial disturbances of imperial history."
Via Instapundit















