Spokane7
35°
December 12, 2009 in Letters
Memories of Vietnam
The Dec. 6 article, “War recalls past conflict,” points out the parallel of our current involvement in Afghanistan and our involvement in Vietnam over 40 years ago.
U.S. soldiers have occupied Afghanistan for eight years. During that time the Afghan police forces and army have been fully reconstituted, trained and fully armed. Yet, after eight years, these forces are incapable of taking the initiative and fighting upon their own behalf to such an extent that the U.S. will send in an additional 30,000 troops.
No surprises here. A Western Christian crusading army invades and occupies an Islamic nation and trains a Muslim army to kill other Muslims. The Russian Red Army attempted this in the 1980s and completely failed.
Either a people have the resolve to fight or they do not. This troop increase only shows the Afghans do not have the intestinal fortitude for this war. After all, it is the Americans’ war, not theirs. Our endeavors will be for naught.
Your Democratic readers must be dismayed by the above. They voted in a Democratic Congress and president to end the Afghan war and all they got was a doubling of troops in that country.
Mark Johnson
Nine Mile Falls
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greyhound2 on December 12 at 10:45 a.m.
So now the new “9th plan” is to train Afgans to police Afganistan. Back to Vietnam and the ARVN who were worse than a joke. There too, locals were recruited to defend a corrupt government they dispised and deserted faster than new ones could be rounded up. This new plan is just another pipe dream headed for the trash bin of history.
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