[hdjjhhvvhga]

One main difference was that the world was extremely critical of the invasion of Iraq. Not just "some countries", but Western societies at large, including - or mostly - the ones whose governments decided to participate. For anybody sane, it was a stupid war for stupid reasons and with unpredictable consequences. Not hundreds of thousands but millions of people protested in main European cities:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/15_February_2003_anti-war_prot...

I was too young to remember the war in Vietnam but my older colleagues told me the general feeling was very much anti-war, and they had to do pretty hardcore stuff in order to avoid being drafted.