Posted on 12/15/2010 7:03:51 PM PST by Pan_Yan
...
Although it is unlikely that the Taliban leadership has as nuanced an understanding of the importance and dynamics of American public opinion in wartime as North Vietnam's leadership did, Taliban leaders surely know that North Vietnam won the Vietnam War not in Vietnam but in America.
And they surely know the role played by North Vietnam's February 1968 Tet Offensive. Although U.S. forces thoroughly defeated the enemy, the American public, seeing only chaos and the prospect of many more years of it, turned decisively against the war.
Might the Taliban's tactics, techniques and procedures (in military argot, TTP) make possible a spike in violence in some way comparable to Tet in its impact on American opinion? No one knows this, or how another attack on America, perhaps launched from Yemen, might affect public support for what are explained as prophylactic operations in Afghanistan.
Twenty-three months after the apotheosis of Barack Obama as herald of a durable liberal era, Washington's conversations are conducted in conservatism's vocabulary - retrenching, economizing and generally limiting government. Liberals watching the extension of the George W. Bush tax rates, the continuation of Bush's creation at Guantanamo and the escalation of a war Bush began in Afghanistan are increasingly dyspeptic.
Twenty-three months from now, Obama will have been reelected, or not. The outcome depends partly on whether the party's left, which provides a disproportionate portion of the party's energy, is energized. On Election Day 2012, what already is America's longest war will be in its 12th year.
Whatever one thinks of the current strategy in this war, Obama is prosecuting it with a vigor that indicates a refusal to allow political calculations to condition national security policy. This presidential virtue could imperil his presidency.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
George Will has lost his mind.
And George... if they hadn't already thought about Tet, thanks for the reminder.
Mr. niteowl77
Won’t work. The commie loving Walter Crankcase is dead so he can’t spew their lies to the American public. Crankcase mini-me, Little Danny Rather, has zero credibility and is busy pimping his new “book”. Of course, the Taliban me bananas might be able to strike a deal with Olbermann and Special Ed Schultz to pimp their cause.
plus they don’t have the stuff to pull it off. The numbers and discipline of the Taliban is a joke compared to the NVA/Vietcong. They can try, but it will be very pathetic.
We can complain about the rules of engagement, but we also learned some important lessons in Vietnam which are being applied in Afghanistan.
plus they don’t have the stuff to pull it off. The numbers and discipline of the Taliban is a joke compared to the NVA/Vietcong. They can try, but it will be very pathetic.
We can complain about the rules of engagement, but we also learned some important lessons in Vietnam which are being applied in Afghanistan.
“And George... if they hadn’t already thought about Tet, thanks for the reminder.”
Don’t worry, George isn’t well read in Afghanistan either.
I guess George hasn’t read “This Time We Win:Revisiting the Tet Offensive” by James S. Robbins.
Discussed on a previous thread:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2599044/posts
You and I might have learned them. The military as a whole might have learned them. The CinC is a socialist, and they never learn. They want Vietnam. They want us to lose. Obama has shown himself to be at best disinterested in Afghanistan, finding it a nuisance. At worst, he is a traitor by intent.
George, You need a dope slap. Sure, we killed a lot of them in the North. But they were swarming all over the south as we retreated. That's not thoroughly except at the hands of the blue-blood's cheerleader commentators.
LOL! I may have overestimated the number of Pashtun-speakers who follow major league baseball buffs.
Mr. niteowl77
Thanks largely to that dead lying scumbag "Uncle" Walter Cronkite.
The Indian Wars lasted over a century.
As someone who was involved in the TET offensive, I’m thinking a TET is maybe what we need - under the following conditions: 1) No embeds. 2) Same ROE as Vietnam. 3) we are allowed to pursue the enemy across any border till we kill them all. 4) No US military personnel will be subject ot persecution by a non-US body / court. Let’s end this damn war as we know how to end it and still have the means to do so.
Sounds good. Now all you have to do is talk Obama into it. And the flag officers who got appointed by Clinton.
That’s the rub.
The Tet offensive was a slaughter. The reason the NV were able to "swarm" all over the south is because the Democrats in Congress cut off funding for South Vietnam.
And, who will play the role of Walter Cronkite?
George Will?
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