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The opponents to WW2 were largely made up of isolationists. I don't think you can say the same thing about Iraq, indeed the anti-war movement is much closer in motivation to Vietnam.
There are also many parallels in the architects of the war roadmap. In both instances (Iraq and Vietnam) the country was led to war as a idiological move by people in power who percieved it was necessary for long term survival. In both cases half baked incidents were used to provide justification. Both are guerilla wars without a defined enemy. In both cases politics have played a major role and undermined the ability of our Military to succeed. In both cases the Government has been misleading the American People as to what's going on. In both cases the media has played a critical role in shaping World opinion.
Some of the comparrisons arn't really fair I'd admit. People today can watch real-time footage, read alternate viewpoints in Arab newspapers online, and are generally much more informed about what's going on. Our standard of living is greatly improved and as a whole we certianly feel more entitled than we did back then.
I'd note that our leadership today isn't asking for sacrifice from the average Joe. Their message is shop and be happy. You can have your tax cut, we can use a charge card to buy body armor for our troops.
Back in WW2 young men went to war because it was just the thing to do for their country. Ignorance certianly made for less dissent, and I don't mean that in a negative way. I'm sure if we understood the magnitude of what was going on in Europe, we would have been even more outraged.
Personally I believe we should only put our troops in harms way when only absolutely necessary, and give them every tool or resource to get the mission complete. That being said, it's my duty as an American to scream as loudly as I can when I feel our troops are not being treated with the respect they deserve. If this lack of respect is coming directly from the political leadership of this Country, then we have a big problem.
This is the most important parallel between Iraq and Vietnam. And I don't need to be a Vet to believe I'm right.
-spence
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