nytimes.com:
WASHINGTON -- President Obama had not even taken office before supporters were etching his likeness onto Mount Rushmore as another Abraham Lincoln or the second coming of Franklin D. Roosevelt.
The Vietnam-Afghanistan Mirror
Could Afghanistan Be Obama's Vietnam? | Newsweek International ...
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"It took them 10 years, but the Vietnamese finally through the invaders out. The Afghans will do it in less time."
In 10 years of combat, the US lost almost 60,000 troops in Vietnam. After nearly 8 years, the US has lost less than 800 troops in Afghanistan. Just from these numbers, it's rather apparent that the Afghans can't fight as well as the Vietnamese can. You have to love how Ergon and the rest of China's 50 cent army of posters can't even count. Let's keep the political analyses to the professionals.
the Vietnamese call it the American War
the british could not control iraq over 50 years ago with much less chalenges and smaller population, they had the same number of troops as we have ..
in soviets paid a high price for the Afghanistan adventure it seem that the desire for adventure has paved our way to follow in their footsteps
it is foolish not to learn from history ...
The Great Game
The Americans, through their Arab proxies, killed Northern Alliance warlord Ahmed Shah Massoud on September 10, 2001. And the Russians, Iranians and Indians are playing their own Great Game in Afghanistan. Cool, another Vietnam.
No,
Analogies to Vietnam are for lame journalists who have no grasp of history or the impacts of Vietnam.
Better to ask if Afghanistan is a long term strategic blunder that Obama is not distancing himself from. To that you have a complex but possible answer.
It already is as I warned in many reports previously when it wasn't politically correct to say so but knew I would be vindicated.
Professor Dr. Stanley Collymore.
It took them 10 years, but the Vietnamese finally through the invaders out. The Afghans will do it in less time.
Yes.
The more germane question is "has it already become today's Vietnam."
VIETNAM WAR
BULLETS AND BARBWIRE
We awoke to the crack of rifle fire
With mortar rounds hitting the ground near by.
The flying shrapnel was absorbed by sand bags
Which saved lots of us who wished not to die.
The hot spent shell casings fell to the ground
As the VC charged our fortified hill.
We killed so many the stench made us sick
While we fought to live and not for a thrill.
Barbwire, bullets and clay-mores took their toll
As red and green tracers lit up the sky.
Before long I was the last GI left
When napalm caused my enemy to fry.
Fleeing the sound of our choppers gunfire
The enemy retreated to the caves and trees.
Then I cried, "thank you " to heaven above
As I checked out my buddies on my knees.
Somehow I managed to survive the day
Though many I've served with names I have read
Carved in the shinny black stone of The Wall
Are my comrades of war, among the dead.
By Tom Zart
Most Published Poet
On The Web
This stupid war is OUR war, not Obama's war.
Sorry - it's his - he's CIC - I don't have the power to end it - it's not MY war.
Umm.. yes you do. That is how democracy works.
The war in the Middle East is subsiding. The American public is becoming war-weary.
Time for the period of retribution.
If Bush would have focused... but there you go... he WAS focused on his own true agenda.
It wasn't peace.
Our failure to understand the tribal structure of Af/Pak had directly led to our defeat. The baddest @ssed warlords will take over forming and reforming coalitions and there is really nothing we can do to stop this. It will still be going on well after we have gone.
What I really don't understand is how so called Liberals can now be pro-war. It's painfully obvious that pro-war liberals were never anti-war just anti-Bush.
Peace!
Ok here we go. I'm a liberal. I never was pro war. After 911 I was pro GET BIN LADEN. I still am. Within reason, use of military force is not out of the question in dismantling Al Queda and getting Bin forgotten.
If you believe that the power structure of Al Queda is in Af/Pak your nieve. They did not plan 9/11 from Afghanistan it was done in Germany. Your desire for revenge is couding your judgment.
Ever read Marcus Luttrell's book Lone Survivor? He does an excellent job of educating about the tribal structure of Afghanistan, and their centuries old code of conduct.
No, Afghanistan will become "America's" Viet Nam...not Obama's
Remember the wingnut that started the war, ran away to start another war based on lies? That was George W. Bush--not Obama.....
History will not forget that it was Bush who did this!
Bush+War=Bad
War+Obama=Good?
Afghanistan was a George Bush disaster by virtue of his abandoning the war.
Obama had that dumped on his lap.
The lies were Bush, and the world knows it and will remember this war as Bush's failed war!
I lived through Viet Nam, the war passed from one president to another beginning with Eisenhower through to Nixon. Long line of inheritanc
Afghanistan is worse. In Vietnam the USA was fighting for something.
And pray tell what was that "somethng"?
At the time, it was two fold: one fighting the cold war and two trying to preserve representative government in South Vietnam. Not to argue right or wrong, but to say there were identified reasons.
Thak you Peter, Paul and Mary. Thank you Bob Dylan for your songs against the Vietnam War. They are still relevant today.
Where have all the flowers gone?
Young girls pick them everyone.
Where have all the young girls gone
gone?
Gone to husbands everyone.
Where have have all the husbands gone?
Gone to soldiers everyone.
Where have all the soldiers gone?
Gone to grave yard everyone.
When will they ever learn, when will they ever learn.
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First Posted: 08-22-09 09:08 PM | Updated: 08-22-09 09:45 PM