Is this the new Tet Offensive? Well, not exactly.

I was there for the first one. It was amazing. I was pulling guard on the perimeter of a small LZ on a hilltop. I could see fireworks going off in 4 villages as they celebrated Tet in the traditional way. Then, in one after another of the villages, the fireworks turned into firefights as red (ours or ARVN) and white (NVA) tracers started lacing the night sky. My little LZ was one of a few US compounds in the entire country that weren't hit that night. Not until the next day, as radio reports started trickling in, did any of us realize how widespread and heavy the attacks had been that night. In terms of scale or of massive coordination, what's happening in Iraq is no Tet.

and the Tet offensive was over the entire country of Viet Nam. Most of these latest attacks in Iraq are centered around Baghdad. That is the hotspot.

Tet was very short but this could go on for the holy month.

My unit got moved north from II Corps to I Corps in March, and we convoyed through Hue. Everything was burned out, knocked down, ripped up, bullet holes everywhere....There had been a prolonged struggle to regain Hue, as I recall. & then we spent most of that spring doing helicopter assaults to take back all the little LZs that had been overrun & abandoned just south of the DMZ. This culminated with the big operation the Cav mounted in April to dig the Marines out from Khe Sanh, where they had been under seige since Tet. My battalion took about 25% casualties in 2 weeks there.

Viet Nam, and especially the Tet Offensive, was very different from what is happening now in Iraq and in Afghanistan. For starters, there is no hostile nation with whom we are at war.

But the similarities to America's pre-escalation role (political, economic and to some extent military) in Viet Nam are also pretty striking.

Would you say from your experience in guerilla warfare, does Iraq appear to be ramping up or down in terms of intensity?

Although Tet was primarily NVA regulars, right?

explosions to come???? It could be a "variation" of the TET Offensive....the concept that a whole nation could rise up against OUR troops is quite frightening.....not knowing the language, just like Vietnam, OUR soldiers have no idea that anything BIG is being put together...it is unnerving to hear the Iraqi people being unhappy that wolfowitz got out alive...doesn't sound good...and these recent explosions are not small arms fire...the Iraqis seem to have a PLAN...while bush* only plan seems to be his "happy Iraqi" media blitz....


and in some respects, there is little or no news coming out of Iraq today at all...Americans would not know if a TET Offensive was underway all over Iraq...most reporters are gone, or killed...those left were in the wolfowitz luxury hotel which was just bombed, even the Red Cross will be leaving soon, the UN has left...who is left to tell us about the news in Iraq???

on edit: thanks for your service for OUR country...my cousin, Charlie, was killed in Vietnam, HM3 medic, silver star for valor, purple heart...19 years old, not even allowed to vote, but able to die for America (????)....I still cry about Charlie, he was my friend...