"I think we did something afer Viet Nam that, for a society, is extremely rare: we listened to people (veterans)
and actually learned something."

the only thing the government learned from vietnam is to get rid of the draft. an all-volunteer force makes it much easier to undertake military adventures without people of all economic classes paying attention. easy, you sell the poor kids on college money, job training, etc., send them off on your oil wars, tell'em "hey, you signed the paper, you knew you might have to fight" and bingo! there's your cannon fodder. no one raises a fuss cuz the people with no kids in the service are too busy to notice. it's funny, tho, if it's their kid on the line they pay a lot more attention. hence, no draft, poor classes in the military, everybody else into your SUVs and PARTAY!

now, however, with the massive screwups running this particular military escapade putting us in a position where 40 per cent of the troops in iraq are army reserves and national guard they won't be able to continue this BS without more troops. wonder where they'll get them?