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Culture War Roundup for the week of July 28, 2025

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The Viet Cong didn't win, the Americans got tired of fighting and gave up

That is winning. It's a shitty unglamorous way to win, but they accomplished their objectives, and America did not. The Americans could have stuck around and stamped them into oblivion with unlimited political will, but they didn't have it, so they left.

Ergo, the Israelis have no choice but to continue fighting.

I agree but also don't. Money and political will aren't infinite, they'll have to pull back and scale down eventually. The only way this really ends-ends is genocide, and they can't do that, so they'll have to give up eventually.

They can pull back, but they'll be fighting again when Hamas starts another war in a few months or years. There is no losing interest and giving up against an enemy that threatens your homeland.

If the Viet Cong had done 9/11 we would have turned their jungle into a parking lot.

Yes exactly

Hence my opinion that the Israeli strategy is bad because it's inherently unsustainable and also profoundly not going to resolve anything.

he Americans could have stuck around and stamped them into oblivion

My understanding is that the Viet Cong was stamped into oblivion in the aftermath of Tet, and American was defeated by the North Vietnamese, who didn't actually need the Viet Cong given the complete failure to build a South Vietnam that the South Vietnamese were willing to fight for.

Sure

My knowledge of the Vietnam war is shaky at best. My point is that insurgencies can win just by surviving and running out the clock