French generals who remembered Verdun brought us the Maginot line. Pacifist politicians who remembered 1914 brought us Munich. First of all, combat between UN forces and Iraq will bear no resemblance to a war in the jungles of Indochina. The terrain, Saddam's mechanized army, and Iraq's demographics weigh heavily against any conflict degenerating into an indecisive guerrilla war. There are no hordes of local peasants who can be dragooned into repairing the transportation routes after each day's bombing as in the Korean war.
Technological advances mean night no longer offers enemy supply columns a respite from air attack.
Iraq's huge army, containing an absurdly large percentage of the Iraqi population, will find it extremely difficult to get the food, fuel, and water it needs simply to sustain itself in Kuwait. In fact, it is difficult to see how a war, however bloody, could be protracted. Vietnam, a nation of 55 million people with no significant industrial resources of its own, waged war supported by the entire communist bloc. Iraq, a nation of 17 million also lacking much industry, will wage war with no support from anyone. Seeking other parallels with the Vietnam debacle, some in the antiwar movement have tried to equate America's volunteer soldiers with Vietnam-era draftees.