Iraq conflict more like Vietnam than Korea

Re “No shortcuts,” Opinion, March 22

Max Boot is wrong. We cannot win this war. No matter how much patience we have, we cannot “outlast [those] who want to drive us out.” He suggests more troops be sent, “perhaps another division or two.” That was one of our continual mistakes in Vietnam: It was unwinnable, and we kept increasing the troop strength. There is no scenario in which continued military occupation will yield results that we will like.

When we leave, Iraq will be a disaster, whether it’s this month, next year or in 20 years. The only difference in the interim will be the cost and the number killed and maimed on both sides.

There is not a military solution to every problem, and this is one of those problems.

ROBERT BALZHISER

New York

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I think Boot can get the whole country behind this war just by having him and his neocon armchair general buddies and their sons be seen on the front line and have a little skin in the game.

JACK SEIDMAN

Long Beach

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It would greatly surprise many to learn that the conflict that has kept the Korean peninsula divided for the past half a century has reached “a satisfactory resolution,” as Boot implies. Unless we envision spawning a dictator in a fragmented country and tying down more than 36,000 U.S. troops for the next 50 years or so, analogizing the current situation in Iraq to the Korean War may not be a wise idea.

CHARLES C. YI

Washington

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Boot suggests that Iraq is not yet in a civil war. I agree. Following this line, how then can he, or any reasonable person, suppose that there can be a “war” against terror? There is no strategic objective to win. There is no specific force to overwhelm. Terrorism is a technique, not an opponent.

In our society, terrorism is a crime and would be more efficiently and effectively treated as such.

However, even a false war can have casualties. Calling it a “war on terror” has suppressed so much democratic discourse that we need a truth and reconciliation commission to reclaim the vigor of our own democracy.

CHRIS HARGET

Campbell, Calif.

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I find it interesting that there is a missing word in Boot’s column about the civil war in Iraq. That word is “Vietnam.”

RANDALL STONER

Victorville