Obama's Vietnam
Hey, hey, BHO, how many years until we go?
by
Justin Raimondo
by Justin Raimondo
 A
"team
of rivals" is how the Obama administration is being portrayed
by the head-over-heels media, which started out by likening the
new president to Lincoln
and may end up comparing him – favorably – to God. A more appropriate
phrase would be "team of retreads": Hillary
at State, Gates
still at Defense, and all the usual suspects lording it over their
regional fiefdoms.
The appointment
of George
Mitchell, whose success at helping
settle the Irish imbroglio suggests some skill at managing impossible
situations, has evoked hope
in those who pine for a more open-mined – and evenhanded – approach
to the problem of Palestine. It is a hope I share.
 Yet
I'm not optimistic, for two very good reasons: Dennis
Ross, whose appointment as plenipotentiary for Middle Eastern
affairs seems to undercut what is likely to be the Mitchell approach,
and Richard
Holbrooke, whose dual
domain of Afghanistan and Pakistan will be the focus of U.S.
military action in the coming years. Specifically, more than 14
years – at least, that's what Holbrooke told
us in a pre-election piece in Foreign Affairs magazine:
"The
situation in Afghanistan is far from hopeless. But as the war
enters its eighth year, Americans should be told the truth: it
will last a long time – longer than the United States' longest
war to date, the 14-year conflict (1961–75) in Vietnam."
Which raises
the question: why weren't we told the truth in the first place?
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't recall Obama ever "promising"
to keep fighting in Afghanistan for over 14 years – do
you?
Read
the rest of the article
January
27, 2009
Justin
Raimondo [send him mail]
is editorial director of Antiwar.com
and is the author of An
Enemy of the State: The Life of Murray N. Rothbard and Reclaiming
the American Right: The Lost Legacy of the Conservative Movement.
Copyright
© 2009 Antiwar.com
Justin
Raimondo Archives
|
