Late last month,
five U.S. troops died within 24 hours in southern Afghanistan. Taliban
militants have killed more Americans and other troops deployed by NATO this
year than in any of the previous years since President Bush ordered the
invasion in 2001.
Will President
Obama supplement the 21,000 soldiers sent to Afghanistan during the summer? If
he heeds the experience of the Vietnam War, he'll find a gracious way to leave
the place and save his presidency.
Here's the thing: This may be our next "Vietnam moment," but Afghanistan is no Vietnam: there are no major enemy powers like the Soviet Union and China lurking in the background; no organized enemy state with a powerful army like North Vietnam supporting the insurgents; no well organized, unified national liberation movement like the Vietcong, and that's just a beginning. Almost everywhere, in fact, the Vietnam analogy breaks down -- almost everywhere, that is, except when it comes to us.
It's early in 1965, and President Lyndon B. Johnson faces a critical decision. Should he escalate in Vietnam? Should he say "yes" to the request from U.S. commanders for more troops? Or should he change strategy, downsize the American commitment, even withdraw completely, a decision that would help him focus on his top domestic priority, "The Great Society" he hopes to build?
We all know what happened.
It’s been nearly 35 years since bombs were dropped in the Vietnam War. Last month, Pham Quy Tuan became one of the latest casualties.
Tuan, 42, is married with two children. Few jobs are available in the poverty-stricken Quang Tri province, the war’s former demilitarized zone. To keep his family fed, Tuan resorts to collecting scrap metal for the local market.
On Aug. 1, he lost both his hands and suffered burns across his body when a bomb detonated. He was attempting to dismantle it for money.
President Barack Obama has staked his presidency on winning his “necessary” war in Afghanistan. Coming into office, one of his first acts, on Feb. 18, was to boost US troop levels in that country by 17,000, bringing the total number of soldiers and Marines in the country to about 57,000, to which one must also add about 33,000 other soldiers from NATO countries and Australia. That’s 100,000 foreign soldiers fighting against Taliban fighters.
This month, a lot of media stories have compared President
Johnson's war in Vietnam and President Obama's war in Afghanistan. The
comparisons are often valid, but a key parallel rarely gets mentioned
-- the media's insistent support for the war even after most of the
public has turned against it.
WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court has turned down American and Vietnamese victims of Agent Orange who wanted to pursue lawsuits against companies that made the toxic chemical defoliant used in the Vietnam War.
The justices offer no comment on their action Monday, rejecting appeals in three separate cases, in favor of Dow Chemical, Monsanto and other companies that made Agent Orange and other herbicides used by the military in Vietnam.
Agent Orange has been linked to cancer, diabetes and birth defects among Vietnamese soldiers and civilians and American veterans.
Nations in flux are nations in need. A new president will soon take office, facing hard choices not only about two long-running wars and an ever-deepening economic crisis, but about a government that has long been morally adrift. Torture-as-policy, kidnappings, ghost prisons, domestic surveillance, creeping militarism, illegal war-making, and official lies have been the order of the day. Moments like this call for truth-tellers. For Truth and Reconciliation Commissions. For witnesses willing to come forward.
By the mid-1960s, the Mekong Delta, with its verdant paddies and
canal-side hamlets, was the rice bowl of South Vietnam and home to
nearly 6 million Vietnamese. It was also one of the most important
revolutionary strongholds during the Vietnam War. Despite its military
significance, State Department officials were "deeply concerned" about
introducing a large number of US troops into the densely populated area,
fearing that it would be impossible to limit civilian carnage.
