Listening to General Jack Keane former Vice chief of Staff, U. S. Army explain General David Patraeus’ Afghanistan strategy on the March 9th Charlie Rose show was like being back in the 1960’s and 1970’s and listening to generals William Westmoreland and Maxwell Taylor. Keane was echoing the approaches of Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, and Henry Kissinger.
Neither Johnson or Nixon contemplated a total victory over North Viet Nam. Their idea was to punish the North Viet Nam sufficiently to drive them to the bargaining table to conclude a political settlement to the war. This was done in disregard to centuries of Viet Nam resistance to foreign powers and determination to be self ruled. What could a few years of military stalemate mean to a nation that thought in terms of centuries? How could a political settlement be policed without the US returning to the battlefront?
(The so called political settlement that eventually took place was a sham whereby we basically bartered for the return of prisoners and for a year or so to safely withdraw our troops before they took over. How many remember or have watched the embarrassing scene of the last American’s being evacuated by helicopter from the embassy roof while loyal Viet Namese colleagues were left to their fate, emblematic of the entire disaster?)
Kean repeatedly talked about the punishment being inflicted on the Taliban and how within six month to a year they should be ready to negotiate. There are two big contradictions to such apparent delusions, although it is questionable that someone as astute as Kean believes what he was saying:
1) Why do the Taliban need to suffer huge casualties when they can simply withdraw to their homes and make trouble by placing mines and setting of bombs, thus waiting us out. US policy is to withdraw by 2014, not remain for half a century as has been the case in Korea and which is likely to continue indefinitely.
2) Even if we have a so call ‘political settlement’, once the US troops are gone why should the Taliban honor it any more than the North Vietnamese did?
Neither Rose or his distinguished panelists. James Shinn of Princeton University and David Ignatius of The Washington Post, mentioned Viet Nam to challenge the thrust of Keane’s repeated assertion.
How quickly we forget!
One thing they all agreed upon: The overwhelming corruption of the Afghanistan government and police force. These are the people we want as allies? They may be as much our adversaries as the Taliban. We seem to be on the wrong side of history.
Let’s face it. We are in Afghanistan for one reason and one reason only: Fear that a Taliban victory will further destabilize Pakistan and nuclear weapons will find their way into the hands of terrorists. This is a real problem. It just may require decades of American military involvement… God forbid!
