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From: Stephan Jones
T1: cyrilstjhn@aol.com
Date: 10/27/98
Time: 10:54:43 AM
Remote Name: 152.163.197.52
Powell's quote serves as another reminder to us that the Vietnam War was not like any other that the world has seen, and to try to think about it critically as just another American war is wrong and self defeating. The MAM term that was mentioned highlights an interesting part of this war. The fact that the U.S. Military needed to classify its enemy in such a manner shows just how much they understood their role in Vietnam. In the context of a World War II scenario, the MAM term might not apply, for the German military was comprised of combatants of all ages. However, no matter what age the soldier was, he still wore a gray uniform, and you could always tell who was the enemy so long as you weren't color blind. In Vietnam, the enemy could be any age and be wearing any kind of clothes imaginable, which can become quite frustrating to the opposition, which is why we keep reading about atrocities and massacres. Whenever the most technologically advanced military in the world gets frustrated because they can't decipher who their enemy is, they are going to start using their big guns and killing everything they can in the hope that they kill the enemy in the process.