Roger Marshall: “I was a recon platoon sergeant in Vietnam. Vietnam is similar to the Iraqi situation and very dissimilar in other…”

“I was a recon platoon sergeant in Vietnam. Vietnam is similar to the Iraqi situation and very dissimilar in other respects. In Vietnam, Russia and China were supporting the insurgency. So we had North Vietnam, Russia, and China. It made it very difficult for us to stamp the insurgency out, an insurgency that had been there for decades, was very well-organized. Iraq is very different from that. We do not have an external government with an awful lot of oomph, as China and Russia did at that time, and a great deal of commitment, as China and Russia had at that time, backing this insurgency. The insurgency is not something that is well-developed, but it could become so. Here is the similarity: My job was to go out, find, engage the enemy. It was hard as heck to do. Iraqis, Iraqi troops, have a comparative advantage over any alien force, including Americans, that we simply cannot match. They speak the language. They read the street signs. They understand the culture. They can sort out friend from foe. Having their cooperation is critical to this endeavor.”