The United States’ wars have always been very expensive and capital-intensive, fought with the most modern weapons available and assuming a modern, concentrated enemy such as the Soviet Union. The ever growing Pentagon budget is virtually the only issue both Republicans and Democrats agree upon. But there are major economic and social liabilities in increasingly …
Continue reading “35 Years Since the Fall of Saigon”
Alfred W. McCoy parallels Diem and Karzai
President Obama has taken a further plunge into the kind of war abyss that consumed predecessors named Johnson, Nixon, and Bush. On Sunday, during his first presidential trip to Afghanistan, Obama stood before thousands of American troops to proclaim the sanctity of the war effort. He played the role deftly – a commander in chief, …
Continue reading “A Bomber Jacket Doesn’t Cover the Blood”
The quiet American was the hero of Graham Greene’s novel about the first Vietnam War, the one fought by the French. He was a young and naïve American, a professor’s son who had enjoyed a good education at Harvard, an idealist with all the best intentions. When he was sent to Vietnam, he wanted to …
Continue reading “The Quiet American”
The pressure that has been on Barack Obama with respect to reinforcement of the war in Afghanistan resembles that placed on John F. Kennedy to send American combat troops to Vietnam during the 18 months before his assassination. Kennedy made an early decision that displeased most of his own staff as well as much of …
Continue reading “As Obama Decides on Afghanistan, JFK’s Vietnam Deliberations Worth Recalling”
I can’t remember how many times I have said that the U.S. military adventure in Afghanistan is a fool’s errand. The reaction I frequently encounter includes some variant of "How can you blithely acquiesce in the chaos that will inevitably ensue if we and our NATO allies withdraw our troops?" While the central premise of …
Continue reading “Heeding George Kennan’s Sage Advice”
Why all Obama’s Afghan options are bad ones, by Tom Engelhardt
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, …
Continue reading “Apocalypse Then, Afghanistan Now”
Empathy is a term that connotes the touchy-feely notion of getting in touch with someone else’s feelings or perspective. That’s what psychotherapists and social workers do. It obviously has no place in the hard-knocks world of foreign affairs and national security. Or does it? In world history, the best generals are experts in empathy. They …
Continue reading “Empathy for ‘Adversaries’”
In a remarkable parallel with a similar turning point in the Vietnam War 44 years ago, President Barack Obama will preside over a series of meetings in the coming weeks that will determine whether the United States will proceed with an escalation of the Afghanistan War or adjust the strategy to reduce the U.S. military …
Continue reading “Fears of Blame for Defeat Shadow Afghan War Meetings” 
