That was my thought as I read your post, that we were still losing troops to enemies who were indistinguishable from local inhabitants. Some after-action analysis of what happened in Vietnam (and Afghanistan under Soviet occupation - just ‘cause we don’t like ‘em doesn’t mean we can’t learn from their mistakes) might have saved us some grief over the past decade and a half.

And in the future too. I’m convinced we’re going to see more of this kind of conflict. I don’t envy your associates and students who have to try to figure it out.

Dave

In the martial arts, you only really learn when you lose. If you’re smart, you’ll study what you did wrong and learn how to keep that from happening again. This applies both at the individual level and the national level.

Instead of turning around and studying our mistakes, we methodically swept them under the rug from the outset. It’s stupid to pretend it didn’t happen and stupider to refuse to examine our mistakes.

We will pay for it (actually, we already have).

d

Diana,

I don’t know. Shame, maybe?

A lot of operations in Vietnam were under the microscope of news reporting, and a lot of nasty stuff came to light. (I remember seeing Lt. Calley’s prosecution for the My Lai massacre on television.) I don’t know if previous wars had the same level of scrutiny. But maybe the powers that be don’t want to open up some of those wounds.

Dave