June 26, 2009
Of Words and Warfare
Not many newsrooms anymore have staff reporters who had covered Vietnam. George Wilson did, in 1968 and 1972, and he also covered the Second Gulf War in 2003. After over fifty years as a print reporter George is still working, now with the National Journal's CongressDaily... having that much experience, when George makes comparisons between Vietnam and Afghanistan we should pay attention. This conversation starts with Afghanistan and moves on to include a wide range of military topics. It was extremely kind of George to take time to talk with me, for which I'm very grateful. Total runtime an hour and five minutes.
Comments
George makes comparisons of Viet Nam to Afghanistan, but he contrasts the people who got us into each, saying Johnson took Ho Chi Minh's dismissal of him very personally. But then he goes on to say Obama is different on the basis of a hunch that, so far, has no empirical justification. Johnson did not want to be the first president to 'lose a war', whatever that meant. Obama doesn't want to be the first black president who also was the first president to lose a war, even if it was handed to him, not if he wants to be re-elected to a country driven by fear and xenophobia about imaginary terrorists, on a globe increasingly prone to social turmoil due to changing global weather patterns leading to droughts, flooding, and crop losses, saying nothing of microbial pandemics, pollution, and the seas being swept clean of fish. There it is. We're staying in Afghanistan under Obama because he is exactly like Johnson, only the circumstances have changed. Those circumstances include the financial collapse of the U.S., and the ascent of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, which will bring peace to Asia after the U.S. has collapsed and removed its military presence from the area.
Posted by: Gregorio | June 26, 2009 6:52 PM
I'm waiting for Obama to start saying, "I'm a wartime President".
Interesting how the discussion (Graham Fuller too) seems to be based on swallowing the Bush/Obama canard that US presence in Afghanistan is a "response" to the 9/11 attacks. No one is talking about resources in the region and the strategic position Afghanistan holds being surrounded by countries with vast amounts of oil, gas, uranium, copper, and other minerals.
[Thanks, Ward. I think Obama recently has actually said he's a 'wartime president,' or something close to it. On the latter point, I agree — not many are on the case... g.]
Posted by: Pandabonium | July 2, 2009 7:06 PM