Obama’s Vietnam Syndrome
What is uncanny about the current US debate about Afghanistan is the degree to which it displays continuity with the debate about the Vietnam war, and the Obama administration knows it. Lyndon Johnson knew that the Vietnam war could not be won even before his administration escalated it, but he also feared, rightly, that American presidents who lose wars also lose elections.
https://prosyn.org/CT80N54
NEW HAVEN – There can be no military resolution to the war in Afghanistan, only a political one. Writing that sentence almost makes me faint with boredom. As US President Barack Obama ponders what to do about the war, who wants to repeat a point that’s been made thousands of times? Is there anyone on earth who does not know that a guerilla war cannot be won without winning the “hearts and minds” of the people? The American public has known this since its defeat in Vietnam.