[Allan from Fallbrook]

afx: The US pursued and prosecuted a successful strategy in Afghanistan prior to the handover to NATO forces. The problem was that the NATO forces, by and large, did not want to fight (the exception being the Canadians).

Most of the NATO forces confine themselves to their own areas of operation and do not actively patrol and do not seek out the Taliban or al-Qaeda forces in battle.

Granted, there are other problems there, the largest being the Karzai government, but the Obama “surge” you reference has been in the planning stages for a while now.

[Allan from Fallbrook]

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.

[Allan from Fallbrook]

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.

[Allan from Fallbrook]

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.

[Allan from Fallbrook]

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.

[Allan from Fallbrook]

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.

[Allan from Fallbrook]

Interesting article in Salon.com from Juan Cole, a leading lefty author, on the potential for Pakistan and Afghanistan to become Obama’s Vietnam. He likens the present situation to the one facing LBJ as he took office following JFK’s assassination in Dallas. He also warns that the present situation in that part of the world, like Vietnam in 1963, could wind up having a life of it’s own, outside of Obama’s ability to control it.

http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2009/01/26/obama/

[Allan from Fallbrook]

Interesting article in Salon.com from Juan Cole, a leading lefty author, on the potential for Pakistan and Afghanistan to become Obama’s Vietnam. He likens the present situation to the one facing LBJ as he took office following JFK’s assassination in Dallas. He also warns that the present situation in that part of the world, like Vietnam in 1963, could wind up having a life of it’s own, outside of Obama’s ability to control it.

http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2009/01/26/obama/

[Allan from Fallbrook]

Interesting article in Salon.com from Juan Cole, a leading lefty author, on the potential for Pakistan and Afghanistan to become Obama’s Vietnam. He likens the present situation to the one facing LBJ as he took office following JFK’s assassination in Dallas. He also warns that the present situation in that part of the world, like Vietnam in 1963, could wind up having a life of it’s own, outside of Obama’s ability to control it.

http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2009/01/26/obama/

[Allan from Fallbrook]

Interesting article in Salon.com from Juan Cole, a leading lefty author, on the potential for Pakistan and Afghanistan to become Obama’s Vietnam. He likens the present situation to the one facing LBJ as he took office following JFK’s assassination in Dallas. He also warns that the present situation in that part of the world, like Vietnam in 1963, could wind up having a life of it’s own, outside of Obama’s ability to control it.

http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2009/01/26/obama/

[Allan from Fallbrook]

Interesting article in Salon.com from Juan Cole, a leading lefty author, on the potential for Pakistan and Afghanistan to become Obama’s Vietnam. He likens the present situation to the one facing LBJ as he took office following JFK’s assassination in Dallas. He also warns that the present situation in that part of the world, like Vietnam in 1963, could wind up having a life of it’s own, outside of Obama’s ability to control it.

http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2009/01/26/obama/

[Allan from Fallbrook]

Partypup: It’s probably akin to mentioning to your liberal friends that Clinton was more interventionist than Bush, spent the last two and a half years of his Presidency bombing the living crap out of Iraq (in the largest sustained bombing campaign since Operation Rolling Thunder in Vietnam) and employed a sanctions program (under UN auspices) that killed in excess of 200,000 Iraqis and potentially as many as half a million.

It galls leftists to no end when you point out certain “inconvenient truths” like these.

I wonder what Michael Moore, my favorite propagandist after Leni Riefenstahl, is going to say now. Or Bill Maher? Or Jon Stewart? I’d say Al Franken, but he’s gone legit now.

[Allan from Fallbrook]

Partypup: It’s probably akin to mentioning to your liberal friends that Clinton was more interventionist than Bush, spent the last two and a half years of his Presidency bombing the living crap out of Iraq (in the largest sustained bombing campaign since Operation Rolling Thunder in Vietnam) and employed a sanctions program (under UN auspices) that killed in excess of 200,000 Iraqis and potentially as many as half a million.

It galls leftists to no end when you point out certain “inconvenient truths” like these.

I wonder what Michael Moore, my favorite propagandist after Leni Riefenstahl, is going to say now. Or Bill Maher? Or Jon Stewart? I’d say Al Franken, but he’s gone legit now.

[Allan from Fallbrook]

Partypup: It’s probably akin to mentioning to your liberal friends that Clinton was more interventionist than Bush, spent the last two and a half years of his Presidency bombing the living crap out of Iraq (in the largest sustained bombing campaign since Operation Rolling Thunder in Vietnam) and employed a sanctions program (under UN auspices) that killed in excess of 200,000 Iraqis and potentially as many as half a million.

It galls leftists to no end when you point out certain “inconvenient truths” like these.

I wonder what Michael Moore, my favorite propagandist after Leni Riefenstahl, is going to say now. Or Bill Maher? Or Jon Stewart? I’d say Al Franken, but he’s gone legit now.

[Allan from Fallbrook]

Partypup: It’s probably akin to mentioning to your liberal friends that Clinton was more interventionist than Bush, spent the last two and a half years of his Presidency bombing the living crap out of Iraq (in the largest sustained bombing campaign since Operation Rolling Thunder in Vietnam) and employed a sanctions program (under UN auspices) that killed in excess of 200,000 Iraqis and potentially as many as half a million.

It galls leftists to no end when you point out certain “inconvenient truths” like these.

I wonder what Michael Moore, my favorite propagandist after Leni Riefenstahl, is going to say now. Or Bill Maher? Or Jon Stewart? I’d say Al Franken, but he’s gone legit now.

[Author]

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