America’s unwise, unwarranted, and sadly unwinnable war in Afghanistan—hastily initiated and then abandoned for Iraq by President Barack Obama’s ideologically blinded predecessor and dumped into Obama’s lap in the worst possible way—is beginning increasingly to smell like the 1964-68 war in South Vietnam that swallowed up the presidency of Lyndon B. Johnson. Full Story »
Posted by Derek Hawkins - via Thanh Tran (f)
What makes this quality journalism is that the writer's experience with presidential decisionmaking provides valuable insights. Afghanistan is not a repeat of Vietnam, where there was an organized insurgency with a hero, Ho Chi Minh, to spur it on. Afghanistan is a very loosely connected collection of warlords, anarchists and committed terrorists. But Sorensen is right that it is, like Vietnam, an unwinnable war. All we can hope for is preventing terrorists from attacking us or our allies, and that can't be brought about by simply sending in more troops. The mountainous terrain, the ever-changing alliances within the country, and the lack of support for the country's "elected" leader makes any mission that goes beyond ... More »
I believe Ted Sorenson is correct in his assessment, however I am still not sure what we should do. My liberal friends were just as united in their hawkish desire to invade Afghanistan and depose the Taliban as they were united in their dovish aversion to invading Iraq and deposing Saddam Hussein. With perfect 20/20 hindsight, perhaps both military adventures would better have been avoided, but we do not have the luxury of returning to 2002-2003. When we abandoned Vietnam, a major bloodletting occurred--the murder of 1.5 million Vietnamese, delayed (not prevented) by our decade-long involvement, during which perhaps 2 million had already died. Will a similar bloodletting occur if we abandon Afghanistan? Sorenson does not ... More »
Sorenson ventures his opinion that the war in Afghanistan may be unwinnable. If he is correct, should our assumption match his, that unwinnable wars should never be fought? Or are some unwinnable wars worthwhile, even honorable? (The French come to mind, who during WWII refused to fight an unwinnable war with Germany--much to their everlasting shame.) I opposed the Vietnam War and worked for years to end it. However I have had to concede one benefit that accrued from our ... More »
A powerless leader (whether Vietnam’s Diem or Afghanistan’s Karzai) with a corrupt family and little support in the countryside, who refuses to undertake the reforms ... More »
The main al Qaeda forces have already left Afghanistan—why haven’t we? The cost of Afghanistan in American lives and dollars has steadily risen to the point where the ... More »
Obama should read this piece several times. Mikhail Gorbachev told the Soviet Politburo in November 1986: "We have been fighting in Afghanistan already for six years. If the apporach is not changed, we will continue to fight for another 20-30 years."
Sorensen might have added that a nuified Vietnam posed not threat to US national security and that the entire war was a murderous squandering of millions of lives and what would today be trillions of dollars.
Retrieving Comments
