AFGHANISTAN PATROL — U.S. Marines, assigned to India Company, 3rd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, provide security as fellow Marines disembark a CH-46 Chinook helicopter while conducting security and ambush patrols in the Sarkani Valley, Afghanistan, May 7, 2005. The battalion is currently conducting security and stabilization operations in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. U.S. Marine Corps photo by Cpl. James L. YarboroFrom The Christian Science Monitor:
He's facing pressure to increase US troop levels there. Has Washington learned nothing from the Soviet experience?
OaKton, Va. - History may not repeat itself, but all too often it recycles mistakes. In 1961, before the Vietnam War became full-fledged, former Gen. Douglas MacArthur warned President Kennedy not to fight a land war in Asia. Over the next 14 years, more than 58,000 Americans died as Washington ignored his advice and ramped up operations.
Today, the US is stuck in another land war in Asia: Afghanistan. The original mission was to capture Osama bin Laden, disable Al Qaeda, remove the Taliban, and keep the country from being a safe haven for terrorists. After seven years of fighting, hundreds of dead US soldiers and thousands more wounded, those objectives have not been met.
And now the US wants to double down, adding as many as 30,000 additional US troops there to get the job done.
Read more ....
My Comment: If I was to write a commentary on U.S. policy towards Afghanistan .... I would try to write something like this. It is a good opinion piece, and one that I posted here top be read.
