Full post here. (Article from Dec 8th, 2008)
Of course it may or may not be like Vietnam, and the comparison likely has costs…but despite the somewhat alarmist title, it’s worth a read:
“We are fighting for a genuine but somewhat vague national security issue, because the small country doesn’t directly threaten us at this time but does function as a chess piece (or domino) in the larger fight that actually does matter…“
Hopefully we won’t find ourselves committed to escalation through our own unchecked political momentum.
See Also: Seth G Jones discusses his new book In The Graveyard Of Empires on bloggingheads.
Also On This Site: Gathering some information:
The previous post with some lessons (or not) from Henry Kissinger on Vietnam: From Bloomberg: More Troops To Afghanistan? A Memo From Henry Kissinger To Gerald Ford?
From CSIS-Anthony Cordesman On “The Afghanistan Campaign: Can We Win?” Dexter Filkins Book On Afghanistan And Iraq: “The Forever War”
From The American Interest Online: Francis Fukuyama On Samuel Huntington
And added recently from CSIS: Anthony Cordesman and fellows have a report here, entitled: “Resourcing For Defeat-Critical Failures In Planning, Programming, Budgeting And Resourcing The Iraq And Afghan Wars”
