Comparisons of Afghanistan to Vietnam were common during the Bush years but have slowed down considerably since he left office. Â Perhaps there are political reasons for this and perhaps there is just comparison fatigue, I am not really which. Â I bring this up because I had a conversation about this at lunch the other day and it got me thinking about it. Â From a purely military perspective, it strikes me that while the war in Afghanistan is not synonymous with the war in Vietnam there are some parallels that it is perhaps a comparison worth exploring. The story that brought the topic up is here: U.S., Afghans hope to rout expected Taliban offensive.
Terror and Counterinsurgency
I thought that the victory laps the press and others are doing about the supposed defeat of ISIS in Iraq was a good time to post this. Apparently the leaders of the West and most of the Western population has decided that several hundred dead and wounded every year due to terrorism is acceptable as the West collectively is unwilling to exert the effort to effectively defeat terrorism. It can be defeated if we are willing to be realistic and understand that you can only defeat terror by out-terroring the terrorists. Now three questions about insurgency and counterinsurgency please reply in the comments: How many people have heard of the … More after the Jump…