[Marxism] Obama is creating a new Vietnam in Afghanistan

[Nasir Khan <naskha3@xxxxxxxxx>]

Obama must call off this folly before Afghanistan becomes his
VietnamObama must call off this folly before Afghanistan becomes his
Vietnam

Senseless slaughter and anti-western hysteria are all America and
Britain’s billions have paid for in a counterproductive war

Simon Jenkins | guardian.co.uk, Thursday 28 June 2009

If good intentions ever paved a road to hell, they are doing so in
Afghanistan. History rarely declares when folly turns to ­disaster,
but it does so now. Barack Obama and his amanuensis, Gordon Brown, are
uncannily repeating the route taken by American leaders in Vietnam
from 1963 to 1975. Galbraith once said that the best thing about the
Great Depression was that it warned against another. Does the same
apply to Vietnam?

Vietnam began with Kennedy’s noble 1963 intervention, to keep the
communist menace at bay and thus make the world safe for democracy.
That is what George Bush and Tony Blair said of ­terrorism and
Afghanistan. Vietnam escalated as the Diem regime in Saigon failed to
contain Vietcong aggression and was deposed with American ­collusion.
By 1965, despite Congress scepticism, American advisers, then planes,
then ground forces were deployed. Allies were begged to join but few
agreed – and not Britain.

Full article >>
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/jun/25/afghanistan-vietnam-taliban-iraq-dannatt

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