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PSC 303: International Relations
Comparing the War in Iraq, 2003-04 and the Vietnam War.
Prof. Jeremy Lewis, Revised 15 Jan 2005.
Stimulated by a question from Tim Lennox, For the Record, APTV, 16 December 2004 (broadcast 29 Dec.).
  • Terrorism index
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  • Syllabus
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  • Requirements
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  • Differences Between the War in Iraq, 2003-04 and the Vietnam War.
  • Much larger area and population to control.
  • Much more urbanized.
  • Much more developed.
  • Strategic region.
  • Oil rich (around Mosul in North and offshore in southeast along with Kuwait.)
  • No longer cold war interest of supporting powers against Soviet influence.
  • Iraq has its own extensive arsenal, not dependent on imported weapons.
  • Population divided into three large ethnic groups: Shia, Sunni and Kurds.
  • Kurds and to some degree Shia had an interest in US overthrow of Baathist regime (tied to Sunnis.)
  • Majority of population could be supportive of US occupation.
  • Large minority of population is hostile, in central triangle.
  • Open desert and urban fighting, but no jungle.
  • US high technology weapons useful at least in open desert.
  • Surveillance and sensors practicable in desert.
  • Rapid transport of troops and materiel feasible overland.
  • Further from coastline.
  • Less scope for naval forces.
  • More need for trucking logistics.
  • Major improvements in body armor, casualty evacuation & battlefield medicine.
  • Major improvements in timely media reporting.
  • Similarities.
  • Potential to escalate into a major long term commitment with unacceptable losses.
  • Occupation requires large infantry forces on the streets
  • vulnerable to ambushes and homemade mines.
  • US sensitivity to casualties.
  • Roughly similar casualty rate (may change, of course).
  • No clear prospect of a widely supported replacement government.
  • No previous experience with or attachment to democracy.
  • Porous borders for smuggling and infiltration.
  • War rhetorically -- if dubiously -- tied to a wider struggle
  • (war on terrorism versus containment of communism).
  • Risk of destabilizing allies in region.
  • Difficulty in developing broad coalition in region for the war.
  • Serious question as to whether local country in dispute is ready for democracy.