The Tet, today's and yesterday's
Glenn Reynolds, Bob Owens and Austin Bay have thoughts on the Baghdad pet market bombing. Austin Bay asks, "is this the start of a Terrorist Tet?" And speaking of the Tet ... here's an historical question: which of the two men in the picture below did photographer Eddie Adams thinks was the villain of the scene?
The answer is here.
posted by wretchardthecat at 2/01/2008 05:03:00 PM
10 Comments:
Tet II: An American Recessional?
Read and learn, Grasshopper.
Old farts like me who remember need to tell those who have forgotten and those who never knew what was done, and try to muster up the energy to do better this time.
Those who understand what Giap and Ho were trying to do, who have absorbed the FACTS, not the mythology of the Left, of the military aspects of Tet, will know that we and our South Vietnamese allies inflicted a terrible defeat upon the North Vietnamese and the Viet Cong. But our MSM was desperate for a story and a myth that would revive and galvanize opposition to the war. And so they spun it.
I do not think the AQ and the small numbers of Baathist insurgents who remain in Iraq can mount such a spectacular operation. It would not surprise me if they tried to set off more bombs that kill more Iraqis. It is getting harder, thanks to our drones and coordinated system of hunting the roadside bombers, for the enemy to get at our troops. We are watching them on the highways and byways at night, our assets spotting them planting the bombs and then scurrying for their hideaways. We see where they hide and where they planted their bombs. Their plans are thwarted, and they are hunted down and killed.
We get more and more leads about where the enemy is and we root them out. We are even better than they are at setting up ambushes. The enemy is fed into a relentless meatgrinder - that is the one aspect of this war that resembles Vietnam: the horrific casualties we inflict on the enemy.
I am proud of our soldiers, Marines, sailors, and airmen. They rise to every challenge and meet or exceed all expectations. They did that in the Republic of Vietnam, whether at Hue, Khe Sahn, Dak To, and Ia Drang. They now do it in Muqdadiyya, Fallujah, Mosul, Kirkuk, Baghdad, Ramadi, and dozens of other places.
The tragedy is that, once again, our MSM shills for the enemy. God damn them all.
Fred: Those who understand what Giap and Ho were trying to do, who have absorbed the FACTS, not the mythology of the Left, of the military aspects of Tet, will know that we and our South Vietnamese allies inflicted a terrible defeat upon the North Vietnamese and the Viet Cong.
He's dead, Giap!
[/DeForest Kelly]
zenster,
When did Vo Ghuyen Giap kick the bucket? That's a cause to knock one back and celebrate the old b*****d's death.
Long live all dead Communists!
I know the guy getting his brains righteously blown out was a VC terrorist, and the guy w/the gun was some RVN colonel...I saw Eddie Adams tell an interviewer that he felt terible about the way the photo was misused to reverse the roles, can you believe the liberal media wd do that?
A note about Tet: Recall in 10/89, El Salvador's FMLN tried just such a national violent uprising, Pres. Cristiani and his forces kept their cool, and it turned out to be the last gasp of the Red forces. Oh, and it didn't hurt that those friendly Sandinistas next-door were routed at the polls a few months later...
The Salvadorans crushed the Reds on the field, disbelieved that Bolshie BS mythology, and celebrated a total victory. Sounds like a good model to me.
I think Eddie Adams eventually found out that the man being executed was a terrorist, murdering scum who had just executed Saigon policemen's families. He deserved with he got. In fact, his end was too quick for my tastes. But, the Leftists were never interested in the truth about the Communist terrorist.
Hundreds upon hundreds of atrocities were committed by the Viet Cong and the North Vietnamese during that war. Read about what the NVA did to many civilians in Hue. But, is the Left interested in the truth of this? Not at all. The very few atrocities committed by our troops mattered, were exploited, and served to be the perfect props for their moral preening.
The Communists were fed into a meatgrinder in Vietnam that they deserved. I only wish that our Leftists could have been fed into that same meatgrinder.
O/T
Fox, in the fog of initial reporting, is saying that the bombers today in Baghdad were two retarded women who were remotely detonated.
It's my understanding that the viet cong that was executed had been caught when he blew up a bus loaded with Vietnamese children.
I and afraid that would not have shot him like that. I would have shot him a lot lower down and let him bleed to death.
The executioner was merciful.
Tet was an utter military disaster for the Communists. The Viet Cong were not just defeated - they were virtually wiped out.
By 1985 the surviving Viet Cong leadership came to realize that the real objective of the Tet offensive was to ensure that the home-grown insurgency was wiped out so that the NVA could take over.
The Viet Cong were not a "home grown" insurgency. They were managed, recruited, armed, and supported by Hanoi. The goal was the reunification of South Vietnam with the Communist North Vietnam. The Viet Cong were not laboring for an independent South Vietnam.
Before Tet and even as far back as 1965 Viet Cong units were often filled out by infiltrators from the North. In fact, before Tet in 1967 and early 1968 a number of main force VC regiments were filled out with NVA regulars.
The purpose of Tet was not the destruction of the Viet Cong. Never take at face value some dubious claims by Communist dizinformatzia. Why would they waste some of their own most seasoned and trained men? Especially when it was not easy to bring them down the Ho Chi Mihn Trail into the South? Also, Giap admitted that the entire strategy of 1967 was to draw the American forces into the Central Highlands, up to the DMZ, fix them at the firebases of Khe Sahn and Con Thien, and into the border regions next to Laos and Cambodia SO AS TO GET THEM AWAY FROM THE CITIES AND TOWNS in preparation for the offensive.
And all this prep work by the North cost it very, very dearly in terms of its own men and material. The casualties for the NVA in 1967 were stunning, particularly near the DMZ and in the Highlands.
Also, all of the Viet Cong units were controlled by political officers from the North.
The Viet Cong started its activities a day early ahead of the NVA because there really was a genuine mess up in understanding when to begin positioning for battle. Some American units sniffed this out and forced the issue 24 hours early. This was a mistake of junior NVA political officers controlling the VC units. Poor discipline.
Finally, the North infiltrated several strong divisions into Quang Tri and Thua Thien provinces prior to the commencement of the offensive.
No. Tet was a gamble that the population of the South would rise up and enable the NVA and VC to hold on to their gains. It was also to deal a hard blow to the Americans and weaken political resolve to stay and fight.
The only aspect of their objectives that worked was that last one.
The Salvadorans crushed the Reds on the field, disbelieved that Bolshie BS mythology, and celebrated a total victory. Sounds like a good model to me.
Second that - a good model. Pity there were no "Contras" used in the North and the South never took steps to confront Hanoi directly, might have turned out differently.
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