December 2, 2009
CBS News
If John McCain thins that "leaving Afghanistan dispirits your friends," he must be reminded that we have no friends in Afghanistan. The only friends we have in Afghanistan are Karzai and his corrupt bureaucracy that become millionaires with the billions we put into Afghanistan. Outside kabul, and big cities with foreign troops garrisons, the Afghan people hate the foreign forces because they are suffering with nighttime raids and shooting by the U.S. forces, and relentless bombing with aircraft and Predator drones that kill thousands of civilians every year. And the echo coming from Afghanistan countryside and villages has always been "Death to America" by villagers after every bombing or nighttime raids that ended up with civilian loss of life. Those people will never be our friends because they suffer the brutality of our occupation of their land.
Obama's gamble will fail, because a similar gamble failed in Vietnam. Fact: The U.S. had 130.000 troops in Vietnam when U.S. president Lyndon Johnson increased them to 500.000. Johnson also pushed the South Vietnamese U.S. puppet regime to increase its 260.000 troops to 600.000 - all U.S. trained and equipped- as Obama wants to do in Afghanistan. In addition, Johnson trained and equipped Kmer mercenaries in Laos, and overthrew Cambodia's government with a coup by the U.S. puppet General Lon Nol.
Then, with 500.000 U.S. troops; 600.000 South Vietnamese troops; 40.000 Khmer mercenaries, and 110.000 Cambodian troops - a total of 1.250.000 troops, Johnson bragged in a public speech -like Obama did yesterday- that "the U.S. will defeat the North Vietnamese and the Vietcong insurgents on the battlefield!" That was in 1964. Ten years later, the U.S. realized that it cannot win the war, and started withdrawing its troops from Vietnam in a plan it called "The Vietnamization of the Vietnam War." Then, the South Vietnamese army started defecting en mass to VietCong, and the U.S. was forced to withdraw its last troops hastily from the fortified U.S. embassy rooftop in Vietnam.
The same will happen in Afghanistan with the Obama plan that entails "the Afghanization of the Afghan war!" And since the Afghan plan will master at most a total of about 500.000 troops, and the about 300.000 Afghan troops will defect easily to Taliban, or shoot the U.S. soldiers in the back when the opportunity comes -as they have done it before, the Obama plan is laughable at best. But Obama was a clueless local politician before he was elected, and he is totally clueless on what he is doing now in Afghanistan. Worse yet, he revealed his total bliss and ignorance on war history yesterday when he said during his speech yesterday that "people who see a Vietnam in Afghanistan don't understand history!" Well, he gave himself an "F" grade in war history publicly to the whole world yesterday, and now he expects to win the war in Afghanistan with it! Sorry, Mr. president. You may have won a Nobel Peace Prize for nothing, but wars have never been won by incompetent or clueless leaders.
Nikos Retsos,
retired professor
CBS News
If John McCain thins that "leaving Afghanistan dispirits your friends," he must be reminded that we have no friends in Afghanistan. The only friends we have in Afghanistan are Karzai and his corrupt bureaucracy that become millionaires with the billions we put into Afghanistan. Outside kabul, and big cities with foreign troops garrisons, the Afghan people hate the foreign forces because they are suffering with nighttime raids and shooting by the U.S. forces, and relentless bombing with aircraft and Predator drones that kill thousands of civilians every year. And the echo coming from Afghanistan countryside and villages has always been "Death to America" by villagers after every bombing or nighttime raids that ended up with civilian loss of life. Those people will never be our friends because they suffer the brutality of our occupation of their land.
Obama's gamble will fail, because a similar gamble failed in Vietnam. Fact: The U.S. had 130.000 troops in Vietnam when U.S. president Lyndon Johnson increased them to 500.000. Johnson also pushed the South Vietnamese U.S. puppet regime to increase its 260.000 troops to 600.000 - all U.S. trained and equipped- as Obama wants to do in Afghanistan. In addition, Johnson trained and equipped Kmer mercenaries in Laos, and overthrew Cambodia's government with a coup by the U.S. puppet General Lon Nol.
Then, with 500.000 U.S. troops; 600.000 South Vietnamese troops; 40.000 Khmer mercenaries, and 110.000 Cambodian troops - a total of 1.250.000 troops, Johnson bragged in a public speech -like Obama did yesterday- that "the U.S. will defeat the North Vietnamese and the Vietcong insurgents on the battlefield!" That was in 1964. Ten years later, the U.S. realized that it cannot win the war, and started withdrawing its troops from Vietnam in a plan it called "The Vietnamization of the Vietnam War." Then, the South Vietnamese army started defecting en mass to VietCong, and the U.S. was forced to withdraw its last troops hastily from the fortified U.S. embassy rooftop in Vietnam.
The same will happen in Afghanistan with the Obama plan that entails "the Afghanization of the Afghan war!" And since the Afghan plan will master at most a total of about 500.000 troops, and the about 300.000 Afghan troops will defect easily to Taliban, or shoot the U.S. soldiers in the back when the opportunity comes -as they have done it before, the Obama plan is laughable at best. But Obama was a clueless local politician before he was elected, and he is totally clueless on what he is doing now in Afghanistan. Worse yet, he revealed his total bliss and ignorance on war history yesterday when he said during his speech yesterday that "people who see a Vietnam in Afghanistan don't understand history!" Well, he gave himself an "F" grade in war history publicly to the whole world yesterday, and now he expects to win the war in Afghanistan with it! Sorry, Mr. president. You may have won a Nobel Peace Prize for nothing, but wars have never been won by incompetent or clueless leaders.
Nikos Retsos,
retired professor
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