Having been around and in the army during the Vietnam War (again, I was never in Vietnam, I was in the Army in Korea), I remember how stupidly that war was fought because President Johnson tried to conduct the war from the Oval Office. Aside from the fact that we got it wrong from the start in Vietnam, I didn't think the Vietnamese would put up with the Chinese running their country anymore than the Americans. So, in the end, what did we accomplish?
Afghanistan is a very different story, and while I have my doubts about how much nation building we can do there, I would like to think the General on the ground knows more than the administration in Washington that has one eye on the political situation in the states, and the other eye on public opinion polls about the popularity of the war.
The Afghan people know that the Americans are at some point going home. They knew that at some point the Russians were going home too. So, why are we there? We are in Afghanistan to destroy terrorists from having a base from which to attack us. If we can do that in a convincing way, perhaps we can gain some creditability with the afghan people.
But paying off the Taliban is no way to win in Afghanistan in my opinion. The mission originally was to destroy the Taliban not to bribe them into being our partners in the war on terror! We are wasting a lot of money bribing these Taliban and I don't think we are getting anything but trouble for it. We have the military power to take out the Taliban and that is what we should do, or stop wasting American lives and get out.
Stay tuned.
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2 comments:
I agree with your viewpoint. A "war" is meant to win. We are not in a war in the Middle East nor were we in Vietnam. We need to get out. Secondly, any terrorist must be erradicated immediately, anywhere we catch them. These "scirmishes" are too costly, both in dollars and in young American lifes.
Thumbs up, Fred.
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