Song Parodies -> "Iraq Ain't Viet Nam"

Original Song Title:

"Tie Your Mother Down"

Original Performer:

"Iraq Ain't Viet Nam"

Parody Written by:

The Lyrics

The Iraqi quagmire is often compared to Viet Nam. While popular, that comparison is wrong. WWII-era Yugoslavia, with Ustasha, Chetniks and Titoans fighting each other (and sometimes the Germans too) is IMO the correct metaphor.

It's been four years now, and now Saddam is down
- the trapdoor of gallows and gone - slam!
Yet the car bombs blow, it's guerrilla show
the people die in droves - all civilians!
It's the Sunni guys at right
with Kurds were pressed down tight
It's all boilin' up inside
The Shia militants and al-Qaida guys too fight -

Iraq ain't Viet Nam!
Iraq ain't Viet Nam!
There's none to speak of Viet Cong
and no NVA around!
Iraq ain't Viet Nam!
Iraq ain't Viet Nam
It is Yugoslavia!

It's the Baathist guys who'll kill anyone for just a thrill
And Shiites kill the Sunnis for a dollar;
And the common thugs they too, they will kidnap and will loot
al-Jazeera will just make up a holler
Yet everyone has failed
on uniting the nation -
Who'd put a stop to all that
Snipin' and shootin'?

Iraq ain't Viet Nam!
Iraq ain't Viet Nam!
There's no united resistance
and no common cause around!
Iraq ain't Viet Nam!
Iraq ain't Viet Nam
It is Yugoslavia!

The Yanks they try in vain
to pacify the land
Iraqis don't want it -
they just fight for upper hand!

Iraq ain't Viet Nam!
Iraq ain't Viet Nam!
Same story: the Chetniks, and -
Tito, Ustashans -
Iraq ain't Viet Nam!
Iraq ain't Viet Nam
It is Yugoslavia!

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Michael Pacholek - January 02, 2007 - Report this comment

Well, you know the (sadly, now old) joke: Of course Iraq ain't Vietnam. In Vietnam, Bush did everything he could to stay out; in Iraq, he does everything he can to stay in! Oh, if only he knew how much oil Vietnam produces!

Susanna Viljanen - January 02, 2007 - Report this comment

Before the war the EU criticis assumed Iraq would prove a new Viet Nam. It didn't. In Viet Nam US faced a determined, well-organized enemy which was professional and fought along with a regular army which was supported by another superpower. No such situation in Iraq - rather a hotchpotch of fanatic irregular cutthroats with no central cohesion and organization except religious zeal. Nobody thought US would face exactly the same situation as Germans faced in Yugoslavia in WWII: once the King was deposed, the country broke into nationalist and religious factions - Ustasha for Croats, Chetniks for Royalist Serbs and Titoists for Communist Slovenians, who were far more eager to kill each other than the Germans, against whom they (formally) fought. In the end the Germans found themselves in a no-win situation: they weren't welcome there - nobody liked them - but they were needed lest the Yugoslavians hadn't killed each other - nobody wanted them to retreat either. When the Germans finally retreated, Yugoslavia collapsed into civil war (1944-1948) with some 2 million getting killed and Titoists emerging as the victors.

Susanna Viljanen - January 02, 2007 - Report this comment

Before the war the EU criticis assumed Iraq would prove a new Viet Nam. It didn't. In Viet Nam US faced a determined, well-organized enemy which was professional and fought along with a regular army which was supported by another superpower. No such situation in Iraq - rather a hotchpotch of fanatic irregular cutthroats with no central cohesion and organization except religious zeal. Nobody thought US would face exactly the same situation as Germans faced in Yugoslavia in WWII: once the King was deposed, the country broke into nationalist and religious factions - Ustasha for Croats, Chetniks for Royalist Serbs and Titoists for Communist Slovenians, who were far more eager to kill each other than the Germans, against whom they (formally) fought. In the end the Germans found themselves in a no-win situation: they weren't welcome there - nobody liked them - but they were needed lest the Yugoslavians hadn't killed each other - nobody wanted them to retreat either. When the Germans finally retreated, Yugoslavia collapsed into civil war (1944-1948) with some 2 million getting killed and Titoists emerging as the victors.

Steve K. - January 02, 2007 - Report this comment

Susan, Iraq sometimes reminds me of more recent violence in the former Yugoslavia, with Serbs, Croats and Slavic Muslims going at each other, as the overall country fell apart in the post-Tito era. Even so, your history lesson is well taken. I've already come to believe that our leaving Iraq could produce the same kind of collapse and civil war, with many more dead than from the current violence, and Allah only knows who would emerge victorious. Here too, Vietnam may be relevant because after we withdrew our support for the South, and the communist North finally took over, they murdered about 800,000 people.

Red Ant - January 02, 2007 - Report this comment

The comparison is invalid mainly in that the troops coming back from Iraq are not getting the cold shoulder from America.

Kropechnik - January 02, 2007 - Report this comment

It's also like Yugoslavia in that everyone on our side is trying to fight a war without hurting anyone.

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