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Authored by: jonathon on Thursday, August 23 2012 @ 01:20 PM EDT |
>What effect do you think that would have on the mood of the population to
continue the war?
Go back to the 1968 Tet Offensive. Even though it caught the US forces by
surprise, it was both a tactical and strategic victory for the US. (In November
1967, General Westmoreland claimed that the VC and NVA could not launch a major
offensive.)
Tet was catastrophic defeat for the VC. So much so, that several surviving VC
officers are convinced that the NVA deliberately planned things that way, to
ensure that the NVA, and not VC would run Vietnam.
For the NVA, Tet was a defeat in the field, but a major victory in the hearts
and minds of the population of the United States. IOW, it was such a huge
propaganda victory, that for all practical purposes, the NVA not only won that
offensive, but also the war. It just took the US military several more years to
realize that the civilian population of the United States had been utterly
defeated.
Whilst the United States civilian population hasn't been defeated, the media has
kept it distracted enough from the current wars that the United States is
engaged in, to not realize what is happening in the Middle East.
How many people realize that US military suicide rate exceeds the combined
Afghanistan and Iraq US personnel death rate?
US military personnel are more likely to die from suicide, than from combat
related injuries. Branch of service doesn't matter. [ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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