De Je Vu All Over Again - Yogi was Right After All

I was reading an article just yesterday that reminded me of our problem in Vietnam. We were supporting and shoring up a corrupt government. Now that shouldn't be surprising in view of Iraq's history but the politicians just keep on keeping on that there are no comparisons between Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan.

Lets look at some recent corruption. The US Government decided to win some hearts and minds by donating a few computer laptops to some schools in a specific Iraqi town,  Babil. It was 8,080 to be exact. But it seems they were held up in 'customs' for months. Then unknown to anyone the shipment was 'mislabeled' and sent to Umm Qasr, a notorious bad place. What are the odds?

Of course of the five most corrupt governments in the world include Afghanistan and Iraq. Of course that is where we are changing hearts and minds. The other three by the way are the Sudan, Somalia and Myanmar. That's a real race of pigs there.

As for the laptops they turned up missing until the US Military got involved. The American military General in charge demanded an investigation into key people in the Iraqi government and was quickly censured and silenced. Seems his outspokenness was seen as troublesome to our Diplomats who were having to deal with the fallout of his accusations, which of course were correct. The kids still have no computers. The military had actually traced the laptops down in Iraqi Customs but couldn't get them released. Then the Iraqi government auctioned off 4,200 of them netting someone over $45,000 and the rest remain missing.

It brings back memories of my Mom sending my sniper team socks because Marine supply had none. And she provided us face paint from archery stores because we couldn't get it. Why? They say the 'black market' in Da Nang where our supplies flowed through. Then there was the case of the missing 'bouncing betty' mines in Da Nang. We provided our allies, the South Vietnamese, with 10,000 of these life enders only to have them go missing.

It wasn't long before elements of the 1st Battalion 9th Marines guarding some of the hills surrounding our massive air base in Da Nang, were encircled with bouncing betty's. When they ran patrols and ambushes, which you must, they suffered over 50% casualties in one month without ever seeing the enemy. The scene was so ugly, since these American designed mines would blow a person in half, that the survivors were later sent to different units and they had to start over for that company. I am sure those guys are heavy on the PTSD to this day. All because of our wonderful partners in war, the Republic of Vietnam.

Are they similar? They are the same.