Another Vietnam?

Republican Senator Chuck Hagel of Nebraska today likened the situation on the ground in Iraq to Vietnam.

A Vietnam veteran himself (that's him in 1968), Hagel told George Stephanopoulos on ABC's "This Week" that, "We are locked into a bogged down problem not unsimilar or dissimilar to where we were in Vietnam. The longer we stay there the more problems we are going to have."

Hagel's statement isn't that shocking - it's newsworthy because he's a Republican, but that's all. For someone to say that the longer we're there the tougher it will be isn't groundbreaking stuff. And the Vietnam comparisons began almost as soon as the war did.

Couple that with the fact that Hagel's just flat wrong. Here's a quick comparison of the two major stats of any conflict, time and casualties:

VIETNAM
US involvement in Vietnam began in 1957 and officially ended with the signing of the Paris Peace Accords in 1973 - that's 16 years.

58,226 American soldiers were killed in action or classified as missing in action in Vietnam. A further 153,303 Americans were wounded to give total casualties of 211,529.


IRAQ
Major US military operations began in March, 2003 - that's 2 years and 5 months ago.

The US has lost 1,861 military men and woman during the War in Iraq.

With 2008 around the corner there are 99 other US Senators trying to get on the Sunday morning talk shows - Hagel's inflammatory remarks have guaranteed him good camera time for the foreseeable future... Mission Accomplished.