Iraq VS Vietnam

As we have mentioned here before there is at least one thing the occupation of Iraq and the Vietnam war have in common, the majority of the population hates the US and the US forces. Like Vietnam the troops on the ground in Iraq cannot tell friend from foe. The US forces themselves are having doubts about the mission:

"I'm not sure we're doing a whole lot of good," Myers, 46, said of the U.S. presence in Iraq. "Everybody thinks we are. We're trying to, but we're not going to change what they want to do, and if they don't want to change, they're not gonna."

Increasingly we see news from Iraq that sounds a lot like the news from Vietnam 30+ years ago.
Iraqis Killed Their U.S. Trainers, Probe Finds

A military investigation has found that Iraqi troops being trained by American forces killed two California National Guard soldiers two years ago during a patrol north of Baghdad, an Army spokesman said Tuesday.

I would be really surprised if this were an isolated event and even more surprised if we didn't see a lot more of it in the future.

And therawstory brings us this:

THE level of violence in some areas of Iraq is worsening dramatically and US forces may soon be asked to leave by the Iraqi Government.
In an exclusive interview with The Australian, former US deputy secretary of state Richard Armitage has given a gloomy assessment of the situation.

"The British used to make a big deal of walking around in their berets in the south," he said. "Now they won't even go to the latrines without their helmets. The south has got much rougher, it's mainly Shia on Shia violence."

Mr Armitage said much of the violence came from differences over how the Islamic religion should be interpreted.

And he said he believed the Iraqis would soon ask the US to leave their country.

As we reported here a few days ago,

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Iraq's vice president has asked President Bush for a timeline for the withdrawal of foreign forces from Iraq, the Iraqi president's office said.

Vice President Tariq al-Hashimi, a Sunni, made the request during his meeting with Bush on Tuesday, when the U.S. president made a surprise visit to Iraq.

"I supported him in this," President Jalal Talabani said in a statement released Wednesday. Al-Hashimi's representatives could not immediately be reached for comment Thursday.

the Iraqis want us out and want a timetable.

That brings us to this:
8 Troops Charged In Death Of Iraqi

Seven Marines and one Navy corpsman have been charged with murder and kidnapping in connection with the April death of an Iraqi man in a small village west of Baghdad, Marine Corps officials announced yesterday.

The corps said that the eight sought out Hashim Ibrahim Awad in his Hamdaniyah home, dragged him into the street, bound his hands and feet, and shot him during a late-night operation, according to Marine criminal-charge sheets released yesterday. The troops are members of a fire team with Kilo Company, 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment. It is unclear what motivated the incident.

It is clear what motivated the incident. The are young men surrounded by a population that hates them and they know it. As I said a month ago.

Iraq is like Vietnam in at least one respect, young Americans are fighting for their lives in a place they shouldn't be, a place where a majority of the population hates them and would like to see them dead.

There is no excuse for this but it's not a surprise.

My concern now is that the Iraqi security forces will turn on the American troops in the not to distant future. We need to get the troops out before that happens.