Jul 23, 2009
I had a flashback recently when I read a Washington Post news story
about how the U.S. commander in Afghanistan thinks he may need many
thousands more troops to win the war.
Shades of Vietnam. Do we ever learn?
It brought back memories of the late Gen. William C. Westmoreland,
the U.S. commander in Southeast Asia, who kept escalating the troop
numbers after the 1968 Tet offensive in Vietnam. His strategy produced
a debacle for us.
Fast forward to Afghanistan, 2009.
Now seven years into the war there, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the new
U.S. commander in Afghanistan, is in the middle of a 60-day assessment
of the war, due next month. But a Washington Post article says he has
been giving Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates weekly updates about the
need to bolster the size of the Afghan army and police force and the
likely deployment of thousands more U.S. trainers and advisers.
The present Pentagon plan calls for about 68,000 U.S. troops to be in Afghanistan by late this year.
Afghanistan, which once harbored Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaida training
camps, has been on Obama's agenda since his presidential campaign. Now
it's his war -- big time -- even as it takes on the appearance of
another quagmire for U.S. forces in their effort to quell the Taliban
and Al-Qaida fighters.
Gates is expected to go along with whatever McChrystal concludes is
necessary. So is Obama, a neophyte who has taken on the mission defined
by the Bush administration, apparently without hesitation.
Maybe the president should have asked the Russians on his recent
journey to Moscow how it was that a superpower like the Soviet Union
could have been forced to retreat from Afghanistan in the 1980s,
despite its modern military might.
Granted the United States was supporting the Afghans with arms and
training but the war proved to be too much for the Soviet forces.
The late Defense Secretary Robert McNamara in the Kennedy and
Johnson eras delivered public mea culpas in the aftermath of the
Vietnam War. I don't expect the same kind of acknowledgement from the
neoconservatives who got us into Iraq. That would be the day.
Nor will former President George W. Bush or Vice President Dick
Cheney or their hawkish team of architects show any remorse for their
terrible mistake in attacking Iraq.
The buck now stops with Obama, who is making a big deal about how he doesn't want to look back at past mistakes.
He could end up repeating those mistakes.
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Helen Thomas
Helen Thomas was an American author and former news service reporter, member of the White House Press Corps and columnist. She worked for the United Press International (UPI) for 57 years, first as a correspondent, and later as White House bureau chief. She was an opinion columnist for Hearst Newspapers from 2000 to 2010, writing on national affairs and the White House. Among other books, she was the author of "Front Row at The White House: My Life and Times" (2000) and "Watchdogs of Democracy?: The Waning Washington Press Corps and How It Has Failed the Public" (2007). Helen passed away on July 20, 2013.
I had a flashback recently when I read a Washington Post news story
about how the U.S. commander in Afghanistan thinks he may need many
thousands more troops to win the war.
Shades of Vietnam. Do we ever learn?
It brought back memories of the late Gen. William C. Westmoreland,
the U.S. commander in Southeast Asia, who kept escalating the troop
numbers after the 1968 Tet offensive in Vietnam. His strategy produced
a debacle for us.
Fast forward to Afghanistan, 2009.
Now seven years into the war there, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the new
U.S. commander in Afghanistan, is in the middle of a 60-day assessment
of the war, due next month. But a Washington Post article says he has
been giving Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates weekly updates about the
need to bolster the size of the Afghan army and police force and the
likely deployment of thousands more U.S. trainers and advisers.
The present Pentagon plan calls for about 68,000 U.S. troops to be in Afghanistan by late this year.
Afghanistan, which once harbored Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaida training
camps, has been on Obama's agenda since his presidential campaign. Now
it's his war -- big time -- even as it takes on the appearance of
another quagmire for U.S. forces in their effort to quell the Taliban
and Al-Qaida fighters.
Gates is expected to go along with whatever McChrystal concludes is
necessary. So is Obama, a neophyte who has taken on the mission defined
by the Bush administration, apparently without hesitation.
Maybe the president should have asked the Russians on his recent
journey to Moscow how it was that a superpower like the Soviet Union
could have been forced to retreat from Afghanistan in the 1980s,
despite its modern military might.
Granted the United States was supporting the Afghans with arms and
training but the war proved to be too much for the Soviet forces.
The late Defense Secretary Robert McNamara in the Kennedy and
Johnson eras delivered public mea culpas in the aftermath of the
Vietnam War. I don't expect the same kind of acknowledgement from the
neoconservatives who got us into Iraq. That would be the day.
Nor will former President George W. Bush or Vice President Dick
Cheney or their hawkish team of architects show any remorse for their
terrible mistake in attacking Iraq.
The buck now stops with Obama, who is making a big deal about how he doesn't want to look back at past mistakes.
He could end up repeating those mistakes.
Helen Thomas
Helen Thomas was an American author and former news service reporter, member of the White House Press Corps and columnist. She worked for the United Press International (UPI) for 57 years, first as a correspondent, and later as White House bureau chief. She was an opinion columnist for Hearst Newspapers from 2000 to 2010, writing on national affairs and the White House. Among other books, she was the author of "Front Row at The White House: My Life and Times" (2000) and "Watchdogs of Democracy?: The Waning Washington Press Corps and How It Has Failed the Public" (2007). Helen passed away on July 20, 2013.
I had a flashback recently when I read a Washington Post news story
about how the U.S. commander in Afghanistan thinks he may need many
thousands more troops to win the war.
Shades of Vietnam. Do we ever learn?
It brought back memories of the late Gen. William C. Westmoreland,
the U.S. commander in Southeast Asia, who kept escalating the troop
numbers after the 1968 Tet offensive in Vietnam. His strategy produced
a debacle for us.
Fast forward to Afghanistan, 2009.
Now seven years into the war there, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the new
U.S. commander in Afghanistan, is in the middle of a 60-day assessment
of the war, due next month. But a Washington Post article says he has
been giving Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates weekly updates about the
need to bolster the size of the Afghan army and police force and the
likely deployment of thousands more U.S. trainers and advisers.
The present Pentagon plan calls for about 68,000 U.S. troops to be in Afghanistan by late this year.
Afghanistan, which once harbored Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaida training
camps, has been on Obama's agenda since his presidential campaign. Now
it's his war -- big time -- even as it takes on the appearance of
another quagmire for U.S. forces in their effort to quell the Taliban
and Al-Qaida fighters.
Gates is expected to go along with whatever McChrystal concludes is
necessary. So is Obama, a neophyte who has taken on the mission defined
by the Bush administration, apparently without hesitation.
Maybe the president should have asked the Russians on his recent
journey to Moscow how it was that a superpower like the Soviet Union
could have been forced to retreat from Afghanistan in the 1980s,
despite its modern military might.
Granted the United States was supporting the Afghans with arms and
training but the war proved to be too much for the Soviet forces.
The late Defense Secretary Robert McNamara in the Kennedy and
Johnson eras delivered public mea culpas in the aftermath of the
Vietnam War. I don't expect the same kind of acknowledgement from the
neoconservatives who got us into Iraq. That would be the day.
Nor will former President George W. Bush or Vice President Dick
Cheney or their hawkish team of architects show any remorse for their
terrible mistake in attacking Iraq.
The buck now stops with Obama, who is making a big deal about how he doesn't want to look back at past mistakes.
He could end up repeating those mistakes.
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