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Friday, August 06, 2010

We Come Full Circle

The anti-war side had some fanciful arguments against the Afghanistan campaign back in the day. Remember urging us to have the UN indict bin Laden and try him? Remember the claims that we had to stop fighting once we inflicted the same number of casualties as we lost on 9/11? Or the Ramadan truce we were supposed to observe? Or the fierce Afghanistan winter?

Once the insurgency in Iraq got going, of course, Afghanistan became the good war. All the hip anti-war people called Iraq our new Vietnam.

Once we won in Iraq, the hints of relabeling Afghanistan as the once-again bad war were evident with Vietnam analogies hinted at.

And now they are in full-blown Vietnam territory, with this article headlined, "Yes, Afghanistan is Vietnam". We have come full circle. Afghanistan is the "bad war" once again.

Yeah, we didn't commit troops to Afghanistan while we were "distracted" by Iraq, and now that we do, the deep thinkers of the anti-war side say that the casualties that such a commitment logically means will lead us to lose the war as public support dwindles because of the casualties.

We could lose the war in Afghanistan. Especially if analysts like this one gain influence in public thinking. Afghanistan is Vietnam only in the sense that any war (including Iraq) is like Vietnam because upright bipeds are shooting at us.

I'm amazed. These nimrods don't know what happened in Vietnam. Yet I'm supposed to wet my pants over our prospects in Afghanistan because the said nimrods compare Afghanistan to Vietnam and conclude we are doomed?

Yeah, that's gonna happen.