Richard Cohen: Fighting the Viet Cong in Afghanistan
[Richard Cohen is a columnist for the Washington Post.]
Gregor Samsa, the general counsel of an exterminating company, was in New York on business when he was hit on the head by a flowerpot (geraniums) being watered by one Dorothy Obdean three floors above street level. This happened in 1970. Samsa went into a coma from which he awakened only last week. Almost immediately, he read the major newspapers with astonishment. "For some reason, they've changed the name of Vietnam to Afghanistan," he said....
Samsa turned the page. There, as he expected, he found that the battle of Marja, which was once going to be the "turning point" of the war, was now seesawing back and forth. Both The Post and the New York Times had reported -- in the words of The Post's Rajiv Chandrasekaran -- that the Taliban has "regained momentum in recent weeks, despite early claims of success by U.S. Marines." Samsa visibly relaxed. Now he was sure they were talking about Vietnam.
Samsa kept reading. Elizabeth Rubin reported in Foreign Policy that the leader of the former Vietnam was acting bizarrely. The leader had an odd name for a Vietnamese person: Hamid Karzai. He had fired his director of intelligence and his interior minister not, as he had said, because they had failed to prevent a recent rocket attack but because he thought they were in cahoots with the Americans. Karzai believed the Americans were trying to intimidate him. Maybe Westmoreland can settle him down....
Samsa read that every month this year had produced more American casualties than the same month a year earlier. He read that additional troops were on the way. He read that Karzai reportedly doubted that America would win and wanted to make peace with the Taliban, which was what the Viet Cong was now apparently calling itself. He read that the United States was going to start pulling out anyway in a bit more than a year. Meanwhile, Americans would die. All the enemy had to do was wait. They're already "in country."
Samsa appreciated Karzai's concern. The enemy was ruthless, barbaric. In 1996, the enemy had tortured and castrated a former president of the country before killing him. Still, if the war could not be won -- not that anyone much knew what comprised winning -- then it ought to end. The situation saddened the newly awakened Gregor Samsa. Then he brightened.
"A Democratic president would end it all," he thought.
Read entire article at WaPo
Gregor Samsa, the general counsel of an exterminating company, was in New York on business when he was hit on the head by a flowerpot (geraniums) being watered by one Dorothy Obdean three floors above street level. This happened in 1970. Samsa went into a coma from which he awakened only last week. Almost immediately, he read the major newspapers with astonishment. "For some reason, they've changed the name of Vietnam to Afghanistan," he said....
Samsa turned the page. There, as he expected, he found that the battle of Marja, which was once going to be the "turning point" of the war, was now seesawing back and forth. Both The Post and the New York Times had reported -- in the words of The Post's Rajiv Chandrasekaran -- that the Taliban has "regained momentum in recent weeks, despite early claims of success by U.S. Marines." Samsa visibly relaxed. Now he was sure they were talking about Vietnam.
Samsa kept reading. Elizabeth Rubin reported in Foreign Policy that the leader of the former Vietnam was acting bizarrely. The leader had an odd name for a Vietnamese person: Hamid Karzai. He had fired his director of intelligence and his interior minister not, as he had said, because they had failed to prevent a recent rocket attack but because he thought they were in cahoots with the Americans. Karzai believed the Americans were trying to intimidate him. Maybe Westmoreland can settle him down....
Samsa read that every month this year had produced more American casualties than the same month a year earlier. He read that additional troops were on the way. He read that Karzai reportedly doubted that America would win and wanted to make peace with the Taliban, which was what the Viet Cong was now apparently calling itself. He read that the United States was going to start pulling out anyway in a bit more than a year. Meanwhile, Americans would die. All the enemy had to do was wait. They're already "in country."
Samsa appreciated Karzai's concern. The enemy was ruthless, barbaric. In 1996, the enemy had tortured and castrated a former president of the country before killing him. Still, if the war could not be won -- not that anyone much knew what comprised winning -- then it ought to end. The situation saddened the newly awakened Gregor Samsa. Then he brightened.
"A Democratic president would end it all," he thought.