More Troops In Afghanistan Sound Familiar
There has been alot of talk lately about a similarity between Afghanistan and Vietnam. The dictionary defines similar as the same in some aspects which means not exactly alike if you look at Vietnam we had a draft whereas in Afghanistan it is all volunteer.
In the beginning in Vietnam we had an objective and that was to protect the south from the communist in the north. In Afghanistan we are there because they attacked us on September 11.
In Vietnam unless they were the North Vietnamese Army you did not know who the enemy was. In Afghanistan you have the same problem but the sending of more troops taps a nerve in me that sounds all to familiar.
If you take all the wars that have been fought in this century with the exception of Vietnam you would see that they all had an objective and a plan to win. They called Vietnam a police action why would you throw a half million men at police action the fact is we were not allowed to win.
The days of President Johnson and Defence secretary McNamara they saw Vietnam in numbers if the Vietnamese had one million men we had to out number them 2 to 1 and no clear objective to win. I sometimes feel sad about the way it ended It took me along time to forget.
If we are to send more troops to Afghanistan its has to have a clear plan and objective to win. But does our President have the stomach for that to lead and not give into public opinion because unless you've been there and seen it is first hand then it is a little hard to grasp.
President Clinton did not have the stomach for it he left a falling brother to be stripped and dragged through the streets on national TV! Did we have the power to do something? That's a question that only President Clinton can answer.
Are there similarities between Afghanistan and Vietnam only the fact that we are sending more troops. Is the only thing that is similar the support for this is far greater for Afghanistan than Vietnam. Troops are greeted and supported for their effort and we are going to win over terrorism.
As that was not the case for vets returning from Vietnam.I can remember one thing in particular I was in a cab and the driver ask me question? It wasn't hey you made it back. No he was only interested in how many people I killed and of course we don't have people like Jane Fonda calling them murderers.
You can refer to Afghanistan as President Obama and Vietnam as President Johnson, the only people that know are the people that were actually there. Nobody remembers President Johnson and all the good he did with civil rights they only remember him for Vietnam. One thing for sure is you don't look at the face adversity and appear weak you have to win and if you don't that is your legacy.
Article Rating (3.5 stars):
- Article Word Count: 496
- |
- Total Views: 69
- |
- permalink