That's what the Iraq hawks keep telling us, anyway. You know what? They're right.
The truth is, the Vietnam War was different from the Iraq War in many important respects, not least of which was the fact that the Vietnam War actually made a certain amount of sense. After all, the point of the Vietnam War was to fight Communism, and there were actually Communists in Vietnam.
Follow me below the fold as I create a precise 1960s analog to Bush's decision to invade Iraq.
The year is 1965. For reasons that seem good to them, LBJ, Hubert Humphrey, Robert MacNamara, and McGeorge Bundy all start pushing the idea that Spain's fascist dictator, Francisco Franco, is secretly allied to the Viet Cong. The American people are warned in apocalyptic terms that Franco is planning to attack the United States, and that the threat he poses is so terrible and so imminent that the only thing to do is invade Spain and overthrow him. The American people (and the U.N. General Assembly) are further assured that there is credible evidence linking Franco to the Viet Cong, and to the Tonkin Gulf incident, but that the evidence is top secret so nobody is allowed to see it. A subservient media does not question this claim.
Anybody who questions the idea of Franco being in cahoots with the V.C., or wonders whether invading Spain will actually do anything to further the War on Communism, is denounced as soft on Communism, unAmerican, and unpatriotic.
So, the United States invades Spain, topples Franco, and sets up a mindbogglingly corrupt and incompetent occupation government. An anti-American insurgency starts up and quickly gains strength, and the Soviets, sensing an opportunity, start supplying covert aid to the insurgents. LBJ insists that Spain is "the central front in the War on Communism", and there can be no talk of withdrawing. Meanwhile, elections are held, resulting in a puppet Spanish government dominated by Basque separatists, Catalan separatists, and anti-American religious fanatics.
Three and a half years into the occupation, Spain is in the midst of a bloody civil war, with the American troops caught in the middle. As public opinion turns strongly against the Spanish War, LBJ and his followers ratchet up the rhetoric, denouncing their critics as defeatists who want the Communists to beat America.
And that's where we are. The analogy isn't exact, of course, because the election cycles are out of synch, and LBJ would be getting most of his criticism from within his own party and most of his support from the opposition party. But the larger point is clear: Iraq is not Vietnam; Iraq is far, far stupider that Vietnam could ever have been.