commentary:
Could Afghanistan be the next Vietnam?
By Robert R Barney
I find it amusing that Barack Obama was totally against the Iraq war but now wants us to heavily invest in the war in Afghanistan. The question that I have is this, what makes Afghanistan the better war to fight over Iraq? Remember, contrary to what hype you have been fed, there were no Afghans on the airplanes that flew into the World Trade Towers on September 11th, they were mainly from Saudi Arabia, a nation no person has asked us to invade yet. The thing that disturbs me about this "born again" warrior is that Afghanistan is ten times closer to being another Vietnam than Iraq could ever be. Iraq is a flat dry desert that is easily controlled by air power. Why the incompetent Bush administration ever wanted to put in ground troops is beyond me, but the fact is that militarily, the nation can be easily managed by an air war. Afghanistan, on the other hand is a mountainous terrain with plenty of caves to hide in, harsh cold winters and bordered by two nations (Pakistan and Iran) that harbors the terrorist.
Obama’s decision that we need to increase the ground troops in that struggling nation is not unlike the Kennedy-Johnson years concerning Vietnam. Eisenhower, although involved in Vietnam was a shrewd military mind that knew that American troops should never play a combatant role in the infinitesimal Asian jungle. Kennedy on the other hand, and specifically Johnson saw that Vietnam was the key place to stop communism, and they were totally wrong! Like Afghanistan, the people of Vietnam actually wanted the rebels to win. Do you know what the number one business in Afghanistan is? It is the growing of the poppy plant that is turned into illegal drugs for the American market! Now do you think that these poor Muslim farmers want to see their livelihoods taken away by the great Satan?
Increasing our role in this wasteland is ignoring a simple fact that almost nobody in the "PC" media wants to admit: That all Muslim terrorists are UNITED against the west and America and Israel in particular, and although they may hate each other, they will always band together to fight us. When will we ever learn from our past? Tragically, the quagmire that Obama is "saving us from" may be a far worse one. I foresee another Johnson-Carter like time if Obama was ever elected… Taxing the middle class into the grave, spending every dime on inept government programs and getting us involve in armed conflicts that will strap our strength. Johnson had all the "right" motives that the modern day democrats and Obama share. To aid the poor, even out the playing field and to protect America. Ironically, it was this totally naivety that did us in!
I realize that many conservatives will not like what I am going to say, but here goes. Ronald Reagan did not beat the Soviets by invading them, or even talking tough, rather he beat them by building our military and economy into the world’s greatest powerhouse and waiting for the Soviets to defeat themselves by trying to keep up. The terrorist cannot beat us friends, the only ones that can defeat us is ourselves! Stay out of these wars and send a clear message to all nations that may want to do us harm, which is "touch us, or support those who harm us, and we will annihilate you from the face of the earth in 10 minutes." That diplomacy worked against Russia, and it will work everywhere else. We just have to mean it.
