Instead, they create havoc with roadside bombs and suicide bombers. Vietnam was fought on the scale of a world war, while Iraq is being fought on a much smaller scale. In addition, there was a draft in place during Vietnam, and no draft in place today, so our forces are stretched much thinner in Iraq and at home. In contrast, many experts believe there are similarities between the two wars, but there are far more differences that keep the two wars very far apart in perspective. For example, there is no real Communist influence in Iraq; rather the country suffers from domestic unrest and insurgency, rather than large-scale intervention from other countries (except perhaps Iran). Thus, Americans are not fighting a "cold" war but rather a war supposedly based against terrorism and ending a repressive dictatorship. The fight in Vietnam was strictly against Communist domination of the area, and seems to have a much clearer purpose than the invasion...

It remains to be seen whether Iraq becomes another embarrassment like Vietnam, and continues on until the American people simply cannot take any more fighting.
References

Kagan, Frederick W. "Iraq Is Not Vietnam." Policy Review (2005): 3+.

Letters from Iwo Jima. Dir. Clint Eastwood. Perf. Ken Watanabe, Kazunari Ninomiya, Tsuyoshi Ihara, and Ryo Kase. Warner Brothers, 2006.

Lopez, George a. "A Quagmire? Vietnam, Iraq & Other Analogies." Commonweal 16 Jan. 2004: 11+.

May, Elaine Tyler. Homeward Bound: American Families in the Cold War Era. Revised ed. New York: Basic Books, 1999.

Record, Jeffrey, and W. Andrew Terrill. Iraq and Vietnam: Differences, Similarities and Insights. Carlisle Barracks, PA: Strategic Studies Institute, 2004.

Wynn, Neil a. World War I and American Society. New York: Holmes & Meier, 1986.