Afghanistan

icanseenewyorkcityfrommyhouse:

chuckmore:

One Important Distinction: Casualties

Vietnam War - 58,159 US Soldiers

Afghanistan War - 930 US Soldiers

I preface this by saying that I am writing with the intent to maintain a reasonable, high minded, mature discussion. Emphasis on discussion. I know that this is a difficult concept for the internet.

I do not follow your post, Chuck. The ultimate sacrifice made by the members of our armed services is grave and not to be taken lightly. Each American service man and woman in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere in the world is valuable and the loss of their life is something to be mourned and not diminished in a comparison of this manner.

What I think you are trying to express, perhaps, is that the fewer casualties in Afghanistan is evidence that this conflict has been managed better than that of Vietnam. The distinction has been made before in reference to the military activities in the Balkans in the ’90s. There was no loss of life of US armed services members during those conflicts.

The wars in Vietnam and Afghanistan (Iraq too) are known as asymmetric wars. We are not fighting another country, we are fighting a group that has an entirely different set of objectives than ours and employs different strategies in order to achieve these goals. The United States, especially during the Bush Administration, has illustrated that it has not learned the lessons of Vietnam and does not know how to engage (and “win”) in asymmetric warfare. It was not until General Petraeus assumed command of US Central Command that the US began to accept the realities of combat in Afghanistan and Iraq. [Read Gen. Petraeus’ 1987 328-page thesis titled “The American Military and the Lessons of Vietnam: A Study of Military Influence and the Use of Force in the Post-Vietnam Era.” here.]

The reality is that Afghanistan is a failed state. And the United States is responsible for that failure. The United States put this government in place and then abandoned the country to fend for itself. Because of that, the Taliban remains a strong presence in the country. Without stability and the creation of jobs the Taliban will remain an option to many Afghan citizens.

I appreciate the preface.

And, of course, agree with pretty much everything you said in full — especially concerning the ultimate sacrifice that our men and women in uniform make.

We will soon have been in Afghanistan for longer than we were in Vietnam. As that milestone approaches, it seems that flippant comparisons of the two wars occur more and more frequently. “Obama’s Vietnam” has been plastered all over the place since mid-summer. And yes, the similarities are certainly there. However, I just think that we are all beyond fortunate that the casualty numbers present one extreme difference.