Partypup: While I generally despise Juan Cole, I agree that the article was a good one. And, while I generally feel that the various references to Iraq and Afghanistan being analogous to Vietnam are overdone, I do think that there are some parallels worth discussing and I think Cole did a good job of parsing them in his article.
Obama’s lack of foreign policy experience is a major hindrance here and it potentially could come back to haunt him. Many people forget that Rumsfeld was involved with the Vietnam War as a younger man in a different Administration, and yet made many of the same mistakes during the first phases of the war in Iraq.
There are quite a few ways Obama can come to grief here, from freeing potential future leaders of al-Qaeda through the closure of Gitmo, through various “mission creep” scenarios in Pakistan and Afghanistan, to a ruinous confrontation with Iran, Russia, China or North Korea (take your pick).
I have to believe that Putin or Jong-il or I-Am-A-Dinner-Jacket in Iran is going to test his mettle and Obama, eager to prove that is up to the challenge, will respond and disproportionately so.
