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Think of the casualties in Iraq and multiply each one by 20. That's how many more died in Vietnam. That's how many it took to get the war to end. Even then, people saw that it was a mistake based on similar lies and propaganda. Our ships were attacked in the Gulf of Tonkin, they said. We needed to be there to stop the dominoes from falling and the spread of communism. At the height of the war, we had 548,000 troops in Vietnam.
But, in some ways, this war is worse. Our presence there, unlike Vietnam, could spark a war over the entire Middle East, between warring Shia and Sunni religious sects. Each day in Baghdad must seem like a suicide mission. The violence is so unpredictable and deadly. We are not talking punji sticks with water buffalo piss, we are talking huge, massive, and deadly explosions. Many of these are remote controlled. If it's your day, you are a goner.
But will we withdraw before we have 58,000 casualties? Will it take that many to awaken the American people once again? Will we have another black wall in Washington?
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