\nSo if we’re all doing our retrospective takes on the Iraq War, mine was\u2026 it wasn’t that big a deal? In scale, direction, and costs borne and imposed it was basically well within norms for what the country might get distracted with over a two-decade period.
Already within my lifetime the specter of the Vietnam War, once much more significant in national affairs, looms not nearly as large as I remember it doing in the ‘80s (indeed, the east victories of the “Desert Shield/Storm” Iraq excursion of the early '90s were specifically hailed for dispelling this “Vietnam Syndrome”), as colorful but not particularly important chapter of 20th Century American history.
While the action did not serve to renew America’s post Cold War unipolar “hyperpower” moment, I honestly don’t think it accelerated its end any, which looks to be more a product of the development of China and reassertion of Russia than any “Clash of Civilizations”.
I mean, I\u2019m pretty sure it was a big deal for Iraqis.
Yeah, I imagine the American War will stay on Vietnamese school curricula longer than the Vietnam War does on American.
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