Lee Greenburg has never seen a desert, but he remembers the jungle all too well.
While the temperate zones are on the opposite ends of the geographic spectrum, Greenburg, a Vietnam Veteran, says the barren deserts of Afghanistan are dredging up some old memories.
“We are still chasing the rabbit down the hole,” said Greenburg. “And we do not know which hole to look in, or what will be in there when we look.”
Both the jungles of Vietnam and the barren deserts of Afghanistan offer new elements to conventional warfare that have the ability to diminish the capabilities of superior American firepower, according to Greenburg.
“They both involve guerrilla warfare, and that is a relatively new concept for American military.”
Greenburg added that while it may be a new dynamic to the U.S., both the Vietnamese and militant Afghans are well schooled in guerrilla combat.
Meanwhile, a recent U.S. report indicated that Osama bin Laden is likely deeply entrenched within the mountainous regions of Afghanistan, a region that apparently contains an infinite number of strongholds carved out of the mountainside.
“The Vietnamese had plenty of tunnels from previous wars,” Greenburg said. “And so does the Taliban.”
While President Bush has called the conflict with the targeted Taliban the “first war of the twenty-first century,” some local officials said that the American military will not make the same mistakes as were made in the Vietnam conflict.
“We have learned a lesson from Vietnam,” said Shannon Blanton, an assistant professor in the department of political science at The University of Memphis. “Those lessons are probably why Bush is moving so slowly and attacking the problem from different angles.”
While United States intelligence officials have determined bin Ladin’s alleged world-wide terrorist group to be the culprit of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, a war on terrorism will not be easy to fight, according to Greenburg.
“There are wars between countries, with a clear and defined enemy, like in World War I and World War II — even the Gulf War,” said Kell Mithchell, an associate professor of history at The U of M. “But this war on terrorism is such a new type of war that no one knows what to make of it.”
In both Vietnam and the war on terrorism, the fighting would take place on the enemy’s turf.
In both, another country had been fighting for years without winning.
“In both the war on terrorism and the Vietnam war, we’re dealing with opponents that are very committed,” said Mitchell.
The fear is that we might target large groups because it’s something to aim at, an action Mason says the nation should avoid.
“Bin Ladin may be trying to make this into a war against Islam,” said Mason, “That would be a mistake for the U.S., and it would be wrong.”
“If we go about it militarily, we end up killing neighbors of these supposed hiding places and make it, from their standpoint, a war for freedom — since we are killing them and their people.” Mason said. “Afghans may not fight for bin Ladin, but they would fight for their homeland in reaction.”
According to Mason, the war will likely be a long and costly struggle.
The Soviet Union fought a war against Afghan rebels for ten years, and the British fought there around the turn of the century, according to Mason. Neither won.
Not only that, but they were no closer to their goals after ten years of spending money and soldiers on the conflict. Both nations decided that the cost of war was greater than the outcome a victory could bring.
“The danger a war against terrorism is that popular support may wane, “ said Mason.
“The war on Vietnam was a war that started out as a civil war that we got involved in, and originally there was a lot of support for the war,” said Mason, “It was depicted as a war to stop communist aggression.
“This war on terrorism is more akin to the war on drugs than traditional war,” said Mason, “and we’ve seen how successful the war on drugs has been.”
The fear is that the war, despite the best intentions, our actions will be the opposite of the intention. In Vietnam, we fought for democracy but ended up doing things that did not help the people involved at all. In the war on terrorism, many people fear that in attempts to catch the terrorists, we might end up killing innocent people.
“As it went on the perception changed and popular support eroded because... well, we misread it. It was a war to unite Vietnam for the Vietnamese. We were fighting over goals that were difficult to grasp and hold on to when the fighting was over 6,000 miles away,” said Mason.
But will a U.S. war on terrorism bring about anti-war sentiment like Vietnam did?
“If it turns into a ground war, I think you may see an anti-war movement,” said Mason. “Any war will be costly, and if we can’t win, why take the losses?”
Another fear is that stereotypes will take root in America based on the appearance of the overseas enemy, something that has happened in past American wars.
“We have a tendency to stereotype,” said Nancy Brannon, adjunct professor of sociology, “But the present administration is doing a good job of trying to minimize that this time.”
While everyone agrees that we should avoid the mistakes of the past, everyone has a different idea of what the solution should be.
According to Mason, “Bin Ladin will be difficult if not impossible to find. Whatever role the Afghan government had in what happened, the Afghan people had nothing to do with it. If we draw them into this war, we only hurt ourselves.”
“An Israeli-Palestinian truce wouldn’t end this conflict,” said Mitchell.
Blanton expressed her belief that we couldn’t have stayed out of the conflict in the Middle East, and even if we could have, it wouldn’t have changed what happened on September 11th.
“Being a superpower, not being involved in Israel is unfathomable. I will say that if we tempered the support, we could ease some tension from the Arab world, but historically we have been aligned with Israel through the cold war,” she said.
Mason praised President Bush’s actions so far. “The appropriate strategy, I think, is to treat this like a police matter, and try to freeze the funds.”
