Dylan Osborne

The Vanguard

University of South Alabama

In Vietnam over 50,000 American soldiers died, and young draftees made up the majority of that figure.

In 10 years of fighting, aAmerica accomplished nothing and lost a generation of young men, our age, and sent the country into turmoil. Parents lost children, children lost fathers and wives lost husbands.

When America declared war on the half of the world that does not agree with us, it set the stage for a long, hard brawl. Afghanistan will not give up. The only way to win that battle is to send in ground troops.

In the South Pacific during World War II, U.S. soldiers had to dig out the Japanese army, one soldier at a time, from caves and bunkers. These soldiers fought, for the most part, to the last man and died instead of being captured. Afghanistan will be no different.

In Vietnam, America lost because the U.S. soldiers were not able to fight a guerrilla war that the Vietnamese waged. The general public was not prepared for it either, and the government had little support for most of the war. Right now the public supports a war against the countries that harbor terrorist. Let’s hope our soldiers are better prepared.

We cannot afford to forget about the other nations involved. Iraq, Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Libya are a few of the nations we could face. Is America prepared to fight a multi-front war that will have to be fought by men and not planes?

In the Gulf War the U.S. was able to bomb its way to victory. It will not be the same this time, you can count on that. Just like Vietnam, we will not be able to distinguish between friend and foe. Civilians will take up arms against America’s forces. Can we, as a nation, bomb an entire region into the Stone Age? No. When it comes down to it, it will take the men in the trenches to win this war. 50,000 men died the last time America tried this and do not forget the horrors the men faced in the first two World Wars.

War is necessary now. At some point a country has to defend itself and America is past that point. On Sept. 11 America was attacked, an act of war was committed, and now the United States has to react. American civilians were killed and retribution will follow.

A war will follow, but do not be fooled into thinking it will be easy. A hard-fought war is coming and many young men will die. A whole generation may die — our generation.

America was backed into a corner and pushed into a fight. Now fight we must and fight we will. However, do not be so happy about it. Do not egg on the thought that we will crush any Arab state that disagrees with us. It will not happen this way. Before this is over with, 50,000 could die. It could be your husband, your father or even you.