Iraq is not Vietnam

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I am SOOOOOOOOO tired of hearing this junk. The Iraq war is NOT Vietnam. I understand that Vietnam stigmatized a whole generation and radically transformed America, but Iraq isn't Vietnam. The most important difference is that we have an all volunteer army. No one, not one person, is serving in Iraq against their will. This all volunteer army is much more effective, better trained, and better equipped than at any other time in our history. Just look at the casualty stats. The entire Iraq war has barely equalled the worst week of Vietnam in American casualties. So why does everyone keep asking this question? The main reason, I believe, is because the kids of the vietnam protesters want something to protest. They want to be a part of the hip protest movement. But it just isn't really working this time. The real lesson of Vietnam is that if we are to fight a war, we must commit to fight and win that war. We lost in Vietnam because we didn't go there to win, just to fight the communist takeover. We are losing in Iraq because we have not committed enough troops to get the job done. The other lesson of Vietnam is that politicians can't wage war. We have the President in charge of the Generals, and the Generals in charge of the military. When congress starts acting like generals, setting war goals, targets, limitations, etc, the military is undermined. Congress is made up of politicians. Politicians think in 2 year cycles. Generals must think in 10-15 year cycles. You cannot overthrough a 50 year dictatorship and establish peace and prosperity in a 2 year cycle. We need to commit the troops necessary, give them the freedom necessary, and put our confidence in the highly qualified men and women who lead our armed forces to do their jobs. Iraq has actually, in the bigger scope of things, been a relatively successful war. We need to make some changes and get more aggressive with our forces and diplomacies to press forward to success, but we need to remember the good things we've done in Iraq also, back off, and let the professional army do the job we pay them to do.