Q: What was the last large military operation the US has undertaken that critics did not liberally compare to the Vietnam war?

A: The Vietnam War.

Sometimes it feels like Vietnam is analogous to some to that one ex-girlfriend or most hurtful rejection that we've all had that we just can't quite get over. We meet someone new and instinctively compare and contrast them to the original heartbreaker. No matter how many successful relationships we have, we continually re-live that dead one and the pain it caused.

To be sure, there may be some similarities between Iraq and Vietnam. Iraq will likely end up with us fighting guerillas to one extent or another. Both will involve civilian casualties. Both take place half the world away.

In my analogy above, that's the equivalent of saying "She has dark hair, a vagina, and soft skin just like Judy, so she'll probably break my heart, too!"

Personally, I thought that Afghanistan would take a lot longer than it did. I also think the parallels between Kosovo and Vietnam are greater than Iraq and Vietnam, both Serbia and Vietnam having been in the thrusts of civil war. Similarities aside, however, the outcomes were not remotely the same because our military was not the same. Our tactics are not the same. The terrain is not the same. The enemy is not the same. And it hasn't actually been the same as Vietnam since the war.

None of this is to say that I know Iraq will not become a long, bloody, drawn out affair. It might, it might not. No matter what happens, though, we're not forever doomed to be that pimply-faced kid that Judy rejected. In spheres where confidence matters, it's important that we remember that.