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Sorry, but boasting isn’t an argument. Your and my combat experience is irrelevant to this thread and, in an anonymous forum, recounting is pointless. Pointing out that you were in Vietnam, rather than making a coherent argument, does nothing to reinforce any argument. It suggests that you have no argument and that you can only attempt to spew forth appeals from what you think gives you a position of authority: “I was in Vietnam, therefore…” That is the line of reasoning that Ann Coulter argued against in regard to the 9/11 widows and Cindy Sheehan.

Instead, why not explain why I’m wrong? Or did you post this thread just to fish for an excuse to point out that you are a Marine and a Vietnam Veteran? Right is right and wrong is wrong, whether you’re Audie Murphy or Jane Fonda. Nobody’s experience has anything to do with whether the author has a grasp of two simple points:
1) this manual is but one manual among many in the Army and Marine Corps doctrinal library and it does not speak to conventional warfighting
2) neither this manual nor any other Army or USMC manual advocates “the need to persuade the enemy of our goodness and noble intentions.” That is something completely different from drawing fence-sitters to our side and acknowledging that our enemies must be coerced or killed.

In regard to your cited experience from Vietnam, that is somewhat analogous to patrols in Iraq. If a patrol thinks that a suicide bomber is approaching them, then they avoid it or shoot it, though it is usually in the form of a vehicle. There is nothing wrong with that, it continues, and this manual won’t change that.

Back to the point, I see no evidence that the author of the article so much as skimmed the manual that he criticizes. If you want to peruse it, the June 2006 draft is available online here.

Note the two guys who signed off on it: LTG David Petraeus (USA) and LTG James Mattis (USMC). But I suppose that LTG James "It's fun to shoot some people" Mattis is too touchy-feely for you. If you want to play the game of comparing experiences in order to determine who is right or wrong then send an email to those guys. I'm sure that they will be heavily swayed by your argument of: I disagree, I was in Vietnam, therefore you're wrong.