U.S. President Barack Obama, surrounded by U.S. Secretary of Defense Ash Carter (L) and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff USMC General Joseph Dunford, Jr., (R) delivers a statement from the Roosevelt Room on Afghanistan at the White House in Washington U.S. July 6, 2016. REUTERS/Gary Cameron
Jonathan Marshall, Consortium News: Afghanistan: President Obama’s Vietnam
Exclusive: President Obama is keeping U.S. troops in Afghanistan fighting an unwinnable war for fear of the political consequences if he faces reality and admits defeat, an echo of Vietnam, writes Jonathan Marshall.
Historians still debate whether President John F. Kennedy would have withdrawn U.S. troops from Vietnam had he lived to win re-election in 1964. Since President Barack Obama recently announced his intention to keep at least 8,400 U.S. troops in Afghanistan through the end of his presidency, the only debate will be over why he never withdrew but chose instead to bequeath an unwinnable war — the longest in U.S. history — to his successor.
The U.S. war in Afghanistan will officially pass the 15-year mark in a few months. But like Vietnam, where the United States began aiding French colonial forces in the late 1940s, Afghanistan has been the target of Washington’s war-making for more than three-and-a-half decades.
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WNU Editor: A depressing read .... and one that next U.S. President (unfortunately) will have to deal with.
Hat tip to Jay for this link.
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