Vietnam in Afghanistan: Now an Unpopular War

[...] Vietnam in Afghanistan: Now an Unpopular War The Washington Independent By Spencer Ackerman 8/7/09 4:23 PM A new CNN poll has found, for what I think is the first time, a majority of Americans opposed to the war in Afghanistan. … See all stories on this topic [...]

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Speaking of local knowledge, also important to note the role that women candidates and women voters are playing in the upcoming elections. In fact, the US Senate just passed a Resolution on Security Threats Facing Afghan Women Voters and Candidates. Read more here:
http://www.huntalternatives.org/pages/7_the_ins…

You'll note from the press report the passage which states:

“Holbrooke briefly commented on contrasts between the two conflicts,
noting that the military regime in Saigon was corrupt and unpopular,
while the international community seeks to build a democracy in
Afghanistan.”

As one can tell from this passage alone, Holbrooke hasn't learned the lessons of Vietnam, or more probably has become the sort of figure he once detested. He is making completely the wrong assessment here, as is obvious to anyone the Afghan government under Karzai is both unpopular and corrupt. The idea we are trying to build democracy in Afghanistan, which is the same excuse that was used beginning with Ngo Dihn Diem in Vietnam (on the strong advice of Edward Lansdale, among others in the so-called Vietnam lobby), is utterly laughable. One suspects this whole business with the phone call to Karnow is some sort of put up job on the part of the administration, but it is not quite clear what their agenda is at the moment.

You'd think Holbrooke, if not up to speed on Viet Nam or Afghan history, could at least recognize a non sequitur when he drops one.

When American Government did not like Ngo Dinh Diem then labeled him and his family with corruption etc… Same with Sadam Hussein. Diem, and Sadam Hussein were 100% supported by US government. Diem and his brother fight the communist more effective. When he asked Kennedy do not send US troops to Vietnam. Because the North Vietnam could use the tactic of “foreigners invade Vietnam” to have most supportive of its citizens to fight the South Vietnam and US. (The North Vietnam won) Then CIA killed both of Diem and his brother. Be truthful with South Vietnamese citizens and American citizens. When US made friends.
Now Hamid Karzai has been the same boat with Diem, and Sadam.
US never learn any cultures of the countries that US send troops to fight. US only thinks and depends in military with high tech to win the war. Sorry, US never can win any war with those thinking. Unless, US makes the world thinks about US in WWII.
How many Empires in the world were collapsed?

I would agree that there is a connection between Vietnam and Afganistan, in that the media didn't want us to win in Vietnam and now do not want us to win in Afganistan. For all the hoopla associated with Walter Kronkite's death, it was overlooked that he contributed to the morale of the enemy.
After the Tet Offensive, where the U.S. and Arvin kicked the living crap out of the Viet Cong and NVA, Cronkite declared that the war was lost. Hello, we just defeated a major offensive and did not allow them to achieve any of their real goals. And that is a defeat for us?
It is this anti-war mentality that lefties think, looking through their rose colored glasses, will solve all of the world's problems. Just as with the anti-nukes, who believe the world will be at peace if we just get rid of those nasty bombs. We didn't really have to bomb Hiroshima & Nagasaki, we just did it to scare the Russians.
The only problem there is that casualty projections were in the millions if we were forced to invade the main island of Japan without nukes. And those same nukes are what kept Russia from invading western Europe, as they were afraid of the nukes. Otherwise, there is no way that we could have effectively opposed an invasion with just conventional forces.
A perfect example is the brother of a high school girlfriend that was the head of a public defender's office in So. Calif. during the 1970's. He said that “If it wasn't for Police, there would be no crime. Police represent a challenge to the criminal and that is their prime motivation for committing crimes.” Gee, and here I thought it was material gain or sexual assault, or just plain being a psycho.

Spencer, weren't you saying less than a year ago that America had the Afghanistan war in the bag? I saw you say that in some vlog thing you did with some neocon creep, and you both agreed that America had a secret plan to win the war, and you were sure it'd succeed. Please comment.

Whoa, what? I think you're referring to a Bloggingheads I did last year with my pal Eli Lake of the Washington Times in which I said that I had some confidence that the Taliban in Pakistan were making some of the same popular-alienation mistakes that al-Qaeda committed in Iraq. But I don't recall saying that Afghanistan was in the bag. If I did, that was massively stupid and I shouldn't have said it.

(Sorry that I'm just seeing your comment now. My comment-notifications on email appear to be on the fritz.)

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