明朝崇禎初年，東北遼軍欠餉嘩變，袁崇煥多次向皇帝催餉。皇帝卻聽奸臣溫體仁讒言，認為袁崇煥若真的愛兵，應該能讓遼軍"羅雀掘鼠"，體諒朝庭沒錢才是，怎能動輒向皇帝要錢。

問題是戰時被敵軍包圍時可以抓雀抓老鼠來吃，甚至吃人都可以。但平時也要求士兵不支餉，去抓雀抓老鼠來吃，這可能嗎？士兵都不用吃飽操練？不用養家嗎？

同樣的，打仗時當然沒有溫水可以游。但平常訓練時，要那些完全不會游泳的新兵在冬天裡跳入10度左右的冷水裡，難道您就不怕他們受傷出意外嗎？有溫水設備時可以讓訓練班長在水裡待較長的時間來訓練新兵，但沒了溫水，要班長長時間待在水裡注意每個新兵就不是那麼容易的事。換成您是班長，您又能在冷水裡待多久呢？

更何況冬天在冷水裡訓練新兵游泳時，很容易就會讓整個部隊出現一半以上的病號。民國七十五年冬天我在左營受新兵訓練時，12月份的天氣還不算太冷，但上完4 個小時的游泳，再加上晚上洗冷水澡後，兩天內全連超過100個人感冒。因此就算以省錢的角度來看，溫水游泳池的成本也比一堆士兵去看病所損失的戰力和看病所花的錢來得少。

如果您要以戰時的標準來要求國軍，那熱水澡是不是也要癈除？床舖是不是也要撤掉？但這麼一來，除了您，還有誰要來當兵呢？

To desertfox,

  I totally respect your points. I actually learnt one or two things from your article. I don't think I know a bit about "軍事". However, I do know there wasn't a single conclusion regarding how Americans failed in Vietnam( I think I did agree Americans failed big time in Vietnam.) I went through tons of materials in the past, and yours is certainly one of the those I am familiar with( no offense).  And we all knew how it would end before it started in Iraq. Everybody knew it this time. No brainer at all. Now, I will make it short about what I did not agree upon here:

I did not agree with the following lines in the orginal article, and my reason is that they are not the true casuses that Americans failed in Vietnam -

但是戰鬥部隊的勝戰意志與極限的體能運用，卻絕對關係著戰爭的最後結果，當年北越軍人與後來的伊拉克遊擊部隊，吃的簡單，住的寒酸，武器裝備沒有敵人好，後勤補給沒有對手多，但是，他們領導人的決戰意志與軍人的吃苦耐勞，讓跨海而來的美洲熊斷背折腰的吃足苦......

Some question for you(if you'd like to share):

  If Americans never participated wars in Korea,Vietnam, Ahghanistan or Iraq, what would it have become today? Would it be a better place? Don't get me wrong please. I am not taking side with Americans. But you seem to know what should have been done about all this

I mainly agree on your points in this article. However, the American was defeated by the stupid politics in both wars (Vietnam&Iraq). Not by the the so-called "detremination" of the opposite sides. It is not that easy to come up a single conclusion why Americans failed in both wars, considering the complex and intriate international political manipualtions had been played during the war times. Wonder if you've heard of  "The domino theory" . The ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) countries, Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand stayed free of Communism because of the U.S. commitment to Vietnam. The Indonesians threw the Soviets out in 1966 because of America's commitment in Vietnam. Without that commitment, Communism would have swept all the way to the Malacca Straits that is south of Singapore and of great strategic importance to the free world. If you ask people who live in these countries that won the war in Vietnam, they have a different opinion from the American news media. The Vietnam War was the turning point for Communism. The American military was not defeated in Vietnam. The American military did not lose a battle of any consequence. From a military standpoint, it was almost an unprecedented performance. This included Tet 68, which was a major military defeat for the VC and NVA.
Simply as exhaustion and loss of belief in the cause of South Vietnamese freedom,  American public forced government to surrender, much like the Democrats want to do now.
Both wars were a long way from being won. If the United States has, indeed, lost the war in Iraq, as you claimed, exactly whom was it lost TO? Certainly not the terrorists, as surrendering to terrorism requires acknowledging them as an enemy to begin with, and that would demand a response.