Matthew Hoh: “I submit my resignation.” – Rethink Afghanistan War Blog

Matthew Hoh: “I submit my resignation.”

Posted by robertgreenwald on November 20th, 2009

Just last month, Matthew Hoh resigned from his position at the State Department to protest the Obama administration’s seeming determination to send tens of thousands more American troops to a disastrous war in Afghanistan. In that short time, Hoh has become one of the smartest, most compelling, articulate, and principled dissenters our country has seen against the failed Afghanistan occupation.

If the Obama administration doesn’t listen to Hoh now, his warnings of the tragedy that lies at the end of the path of escalation will come to haunt our nation in years to come.

Obama will announce a decision on escalation within weeks. But according to news reports, he is having second thoughts about the wisdom of throwing more American soldiers into a quagmire.

Now is the time to sign our petition to President Obama and send it to others. Then help us continue this important work on Afghanistan by becoming a Brave New Foundation member. As a thank you, you will have access to our Brave New Conversations series, where you can watch amazing Conversations with extraordinary personalities – including a discussion with Matthew Hoh on why the U.S. is following in the footsteps of the Soviet Union on a road to disaster in Afghanistan.

charlesbrooks

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kaos_scorpio

This is not just about the war in Afghanistan, this is about men and women who fight wars because that is who we are. I'm a Marine and have no qualms fighting a war, but, if your going to have me fight don't tie my hands behind our backs. Mathew Hoh was my CO in Iraq and had a joke that we're "defeating our enemy one unobserved obstacle at a time" now I finally understand the joke.

lindahenning

it is very disturbing to contemplate a repeat of Viet Nam. I lived through that time & there are no words to discribe its horrors. To stay in Afghaniston is to validate the decisions of the Bush administration which have proven to be unfounded & self serving.

josephlucci

Our (USA) governments penchant to become embroiled wars in foriegn lands is an enigma of incredible proportions. What are we as a nation trying to prove? That we are top cop on this planet and we intend to restore peace and order here? Jolu

goodguy54_2000

The fact that troops on foreign soil incite terrorism and resistance is not new. Sociologist Robert Pape of the University of Chicago studied why suicide terrorists do what they do and the answer is unequivocably "because they believe they have been invaded by a foreign army from a democratic state".

The 9/11 bombings, the troubles in Vietnam, the troubles in Iraq and Afghanistan ALL happened because our armed forces were propping up or establishing despotic governments which were beholden to the United States for their sustenance. If we withdrew from the Middle East, the horribly corrupt Saudi government would be overthrown within a year or two -- and replaced by some other corrupt government. It's not about religion and its not about justice. It's about power and control of economic resources. In other words, it's colonialism without the overt colonies.

zo

stop both wars as soon as possible and as safely as possible for our troops!

jameskuhn

He was elected based on putting a stop to these 2 fake wars, we need to bring them home and start working on our country and spending our money on our people. We can not keep following bad ideas or killing people just because they are different or to get their oil we need to take control of ourselves and our country and do whats right. Get off oil and coal and use newer cleaner ways of getting the energy we need and we can do it and we'll be much better off for it.

Nancy

We are there for oil; no other reason. Louis Farrakahn said that years ago...before anyone else was pointing out the obvious. This is a nightmare for our country. Why on earth did Obama receive the Nobel prize for peace? He does not deserve it if he sends more troops into Afghanistan! He was supposed to be our "peace President"; he is not. I am very sorry I voted for him. This will be his undoing as our president. Wish I'd listened to my "gut" and voted for Ron Paul.

lannyball

The Punic Wars between Rome and Carthage raged for 200 years. Is that what we're going for here? For what? A member of my wife's family just returned from Afghanistan. When asked what we were fighting for there, he didn't really know.
That's a problem, isn't it? Our own troops aren't sure what the objective is?!
It's time for this president to stand up to the war hawks like John McCain (who, of anyone in the government, should understand the dead end nature of this strategy) and just say no. No, there is no military solution. And if the military "solution" will cost us thousands of lives and billions of dollars, not to mention the reputation of America as a beacon of human rights protection, then it's not the right solution.

kaos_scorpio

Yes! You're close to getting the point. Marines, Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen we're all warriors fighting for our country. Fighting for what believe:friends, families our own Ideals. These are the same thing that our enemy fights for.We fight because we have no choice, when you join the military you sign away you bill of rights as well as when you go through boot camp you are, in a way, brainwashed. Not everybody can fight in a warzone and in order to fight you have no choice but to be mentally brainwashed. That is why many trops don't know why we we're their. As a Marine i want to fight in Afghanistan, not because I believe in the war, but because men I view as my brothers are fighting; because women that are like sisters to me are fighting. My brothers and sisters are dying and it drives me crazy and it is up to the American people to realize that this is a time for reform and Captain Hoh needs to realize that he is a key piece in a movment that leads to this reform.

lannyball

Thanks for responding to my post. I understand you are a marine then? I am curious about your opinion of the recent decision to escalate the war with 30,000 more troops and ??? more billion dollars. What are your thoughts about our current strategy?

Also, when you say we're "fighting for our own ideals" or "fighting for what we believe", what does that mean exactly? Do you feel it is America's place to serve as the world's policeman, fighting anywhere where people don't believe in the same things we do? Help me understand what this actually means.

Thanks for your time and service,

lannyball

Thanks, again, for responding to my post.

pcsewall

Bush started this war along with the one in Iraq; now Obama feels he needs to show that he can be as tough as a Republican president by perpetrating it. This is all about political standing and stature as well as keeping Republicans happy that we are continuing another failed policy of Bush's inept and horribly devastating regime.

This will certainly become Obama's Vietnam. And it will help ruin him politically. He is giving me no hope at this point that he will think better of his position.

Scott Swanson

We have no more business being in Afghanistan than we do in Iraq. This must stop now - send our troops home!

Dorsey Lawson

This war is a monstrosity - it should never have been begun - It has not made us safer and thousands of innocent Afgans have been killed - and hundreds of Americans have been killed.
When will the killing stop? President Obama, the answer is in your hands. You must listen to the voices of peace around you -- and stop this senseless war.

Nicole Colao-Vitolo

no more war...

douglasware

There are those that say the circumstances in Afghanistan are not the same as those in Viet Nam Mark Twain once said, "History doesn't repeat itself - at best it sometimes rhymes”. I hear the verses already. And the second verse will be the same as the first.

Jo Anne Tuck

No more combat...no more invasions...no more troops in Afghanistan. Use the Dipolomacy you promised to stabilize as best you can and bring our troops home. The U.S. can no longer afford the lives nor the dollars to support such fruitless, ever growing effort, that in my opinion, is worsened, rather than helped by our presence.

Cathleen Compton

I think this argument cuts through any others to the contrary. More people will die without moving our policies forward. The lucky among us will live to regret this.

karinrada

Please bring the troops home. Too many civilians will be killed.

rickywahoo

War is profit. Viet Nam war was profit. The iraq war was profit. Both wars started because the senators betrayed our constitution. Only the Senate can declare war on a foreign nations. This is not their fault but it is us, We the people, remember we are in charge but apathy and ignorance allows our leaders in DC to do what they want. Our media only cares about infidelity, homosexuality, or who bows and how many degrees and don't tell us about the real and important facts. I call me congressman all the time. However the American people are the most resilient and resourceful we are only impaired and limited by the weakest link and that is our leaders in DC.

ashkhan42

Last Friday night I watched Bill Moyer's Journal regarding the similar situation faced by Lyndon Johnson on war in Vietnam. I have been to Afghanistan and it is difficult to decide whether to send more troups or bring them back. If the rule of Talibanis is to be avoided, then it is imperative that we send more troups but we need to change the tactics. Bring theTalibans in the fold and make Karzai to form a unity government.

estellecohen

My greatest disappointment would be to hear our President say yes to more troops.. Someone has to say NO MORE fodder to Afgahastan.Our soldiers mean more than our pride.

Marilyn Flynn

Out now!!

Monique Frugier

Matthew Hoh I salute you. The disaster in Afghanistan needs not to be predicted as it already resides in the hearts of the families who lost a loved one for a senseless war. Just as our country did in Iraq, one day we will say "What have we done?" on Memorial Day, as the future of America will try to make sense of the past administrations decisions to go to war. For those of us still alive then, there will be another question : What have we not done to stop the carnage and why didn't we prosecute those who took our country to wars based on lies? On this latest, please tell me it's not so !

mikecurtis

I vote that the U.S. withdrawl from Afganistan as soon as possible.

Mike Curtis of Arden, DE

erikmcgee

STOP THE MADDNESS NOW! HEALTHCARE NOT WARFARE!

Mary Randall

War, killing, guns leads to more war, killing and guns. It's time to stop the insanity and start something that looks more like the outcome you want. Peace leads to peace. Respect. Understanding. Start there.

Joan Shepherd

It all seems so useless, hopeless, a total waste of lives, money. Isn`t there any sanity in our government?

Karen Haggerty

RETHINK AFGHANISTAN........SERIOUSLY RETHINK IT AND HEAR BOTH SIDES.....WOULD YOU SEND YOUR CHILD AND WHO WOULD DARE TO ASK......................

mary j cox

Don't let the war hawks lead you into another Vietnam. These countries do not want to be occupied by foreigners and they will fight all occupiers. You will be wasting valuable treasure and lives. We need this treasure to restore our own country and help those countries that need food,water, shelter,medicine and sanitation so they can continue to exist.

donfoster

The time HAS come. We in America need to reevaluate how we want to be seen by the rest of the world. It is time to build rather than destroy. Imagine how then Iraqis and Afghans would look at us if rather than soldiers and guns we sent people to build water systems, schools hospitals, medical clinics and houses. I believe we could accomplish more at a lower cost with true humanitarian aide than military presence.

richardkarch

Stop this WAR! We are in need of a whole lot more important things than fostering this WAR that has been going on for years and years. The Afghans have said they want us out. The majority of the American public wants us out. Let's get out NOW!

Kathryn Hoffman

I agree and refer everyone to Bill Moyer's show tonight, to be repeated on PBS. He uses LBJ's own phone conversations with advisors in the mid 60's when he had inherited Vietnam. Same thoughts/same words/different countries and decades. Same death for no good reason...

joyceduchscherer

We are at a critical time in our national evolution. We must seek
better resolutions than violence!

lindahogan

This is a war that we can't survive. It is time to end our presence there. Even the police are Taliban. We are sending all our money into this battle, if we can call a struggle that, and we are losing our people, our future, our incomes, our children, and all for nothing.
The Taliban grows because of our presence there. We make enemies by what we do. The eyes of an injured child are filled with hatred of Americans. Let's vote now for peace. This is why we elected Obama.

gracebenz

This whole war thing is like a game to our leaders and political representatives that don't care about people anyway. They are the ones in power and they represent the corporations, not the people, as it should be quite clear to anyone with a tad of sense. This is about money and profits and total corruption of leadership! Any hope that things would change with Obama is quickly dewindling. The banks, wall street and the corporations are the victors here and until we all stand up and reclaim our country and our sojourn rights, more death and destruction is imminent!

davidclarkandlindamiller

We must stop the ending and ruination of so many lives for the benefit of the few in the military industrial complex. Please bring our soldiers home and put our resources into doing good right here in the United States where they are needed so much.

johndorazio

I beleive that if we continue on the path of escalation we will replicate the Russian occupation and ultimately withdraw in disgrace regreting all the dealth and destruction. I also believe that we should have a deeper discussion as to why we are there in the first place. Billions of dollars is waiting to be made if the gas and oil pipeline could be completed to the Indian Ocean. It was about the oil in Iraq and it may be about the in Afghanistan.

Pamela Corey

No more war! We voted you in to get us out!

drettmann

Former President Bush blew the opportunity to nail the top leaders of El Qaeda when he mysteriously became pre-occupied with Iraq. It's too late now.

Terrorists are not just in Afghanistan, or Pakistan. They are everywhere...the middle east, far east, Africa, Europe, the Pacific rim, and they're here in the United States.

The best way to fight them and eventually defeat them is the lawful use of intelligence and surgical tactical targeting...meaning kill them...using small teams of special forces and airborne assets like the Predator....whereever they are found.

These murderers cannot be reasoned with, they must be dealt with.

And that can't be done by committing many thousands of American soldiers to the poppy wasteland of Afghanistan's tribes.

Julie Carter

I admire your decision ever so much. I only wish there were more people in the administration with your courage and wisdom

elizabeth Chapman

Will our training of Afghan police/soldiers garantee that they use their skills to protect all Afghan people, or will they have special allegience to their own clans, perhaps even criminal groups? Did this country ever ask for foreigners to come and "help" them? We do not have to leave withour sending civilian assistance, but it will have to be at their request, or after our persuation that we wish to help them, not kill them. When will we ever see that only non-violent resistance can bring change, only win-win solutions help. War is never the answer, it is only a plaster on a sore, a recirculation of hate.

stevemcpherson

I voted for Obama with the expectations that he would remove the US from the foreign entanglements in the Middle East. The last US administration created a world in which everyone is less safe.
The concept of pre-emptive war is so dangerous and has etablished such a horrible precedence that many generations in the future will look back with regret.
President Obama, demonstrate to the american people that you recognize the futility and criminality of these two wars and take the moral high ground and end both.

gaeapanda

Should our new President dispatches our youth to die on foreign soil, he would perpetuate America's 20th century imperialist stand as had all his predecessors, and demonstrate that it is the Cheney Group that rule our nation, and not her citizens....It is heartbreaking to think that nothing, nothing can loosen the corporate tyranny in control of our lives

karahp

Put it back on Congress to decide what to do. Congress is the body that should decide to go to war and how to fund it, it was never intended to be an Executive power. We need to re-debate this insanity, as a country, through the proper political venue.

David Downing

President Obama, please do what you know is right! I implore you not to give in to the war hawkes, but to be a dove of peace in a war-torn world!

jojol

The American administrations seem more concerned with how we will look to "others" around the world than with whether this so called war is right or winnable. Meanwhile, it is our brave young men and women who are at risk, not the politicians. It is a well accepted fact that Afghanistan is a tribal country and has been for centuries. We will not succeed in turning it into an American-styled democracy, not now. So, why do we stay there and continue this futile fight? The answer is the same as it was in previous wars - money! The poppy fields, the munitions manufacturers, the military suppliers, etc. All of these are benefitted by our "invasion". We need to get out of there, isolate them and let their own "government" pull them up into the 21st century. We should be tired already of thinking that we are the world's watchdogs. We are humans - let's just live like that and let others copy that from us.

georgeroy

This as well as Iraq is a lost cause. We should vacate the Mid-east, as the muslims want, or we will be enforcing a police state for years to come at a great American expense in lives lost and untold billions of dollars for years to come.

eulalee

Please President Obama, listen to the voice of peace whch is in your soul. Remember you won the Nobel Peace Prize, now is your chance to prove to the world that you are for peace.American lives are too precious to be lost in a war that will never be won.

Stan Brouard

It's really simple. If there was an occupying force on American soil, how long and how hard would Americans fight them? I believe the answer is however long it took to run them off. We may have the upper hand technologically and militarily, but this war of ideals cannot be won with weapons. If only we could learn from the lessons of the Soviet Union and Great Britain. Our larger than life American ego is willing to sacrifice thousands of men and women, and billions of dollars for a cause that we've frankly already lost. Yet we keep feeding the military monster. I wish President Obama and Congress had the guts to say NO! No more! It would not make us weak, just wise.

pongagt

President Obama

Every soldier killed while you delay is one that could be alive when our government finally realizes the hopelessness of the situation. It absolutely will happen. How many dead Americans and Afghans will it take? What is your number of American sons, daughters, fathers, mothers you are willing to sacrifice until you stop the war or pass the buck to someone else? The war is Bush's mistake and now it is your time to decide if the deaths are worth something. Has what has been gained so far been worth any lives? Would you sacrifice your life for what has been gained or what you perceive can be gained? Tell me, what has been gained that relatives of the dead can say they have accomplished? Take off your blinders and listen to those that elected you. What value do you place on a American life? We shall now find out.

The president that got us into this called himself the decider. It is time for you to be the decider and make the only right decision to withdraw all troops from Afghanistan and replace them with aid workers when the Afghanistan people can stabilize their country at their own cost in lives, not ours.

Doris

If you decide to pull out, be very careful. JFK ordered the troops out of Viet Nam and 2 weeks later he was dead. The military industrial complex, CIA, IMF, and the Federal Reserve rule this country, not you. This is why you MUST look back, not move on without putting to bed 9/11. Your life and the life of this country depends on it. Cheney needs to be arrested immediately. He is our #1 terrorist.

Jack Smith

.

Robert Jones

This is all about how the CFR, Tri-Lateral Commission, and the Bilderberg Group control our government now. Obama is one of them. All of his Cabinet and White House administration are all of the above and they tell him what to do. Can someone investigate these people and tell us the truth about who is behind the government today. It is also not just the US it is the whole world that they control. Investigate them and tell the world the truth so they will know that they are not as secretive as they think.

simplee

Sadly, I have to agree with laurensanders. The United States of America has been bought by corporations whose sole interest is in making short term profits.... at the cost of lives, limbs, conscience, & taxpayer money. It is most evident in the issues of continued unwarranted military occupation of Afghanistan, & in the refusal of our legislative & executive branches to enact or even seriously discuss the simplest & only solution to our health care problems.... Universal Single Payer/Medicare For All.

Both of these issues result in immeasurable human suffering, loss of human lives, & astronomical financial costs to everyone except the corporate vested interests which keep them from being resolved.

Unfortunately, until we enact a complete overhaul of our campaign financing laws & policies, stop allowing corporations to contribute to campaigns at all, & rescind the law which gave corporations personhood, we will not be able to stop the sacrificing of our people to corporate greed!

Rowland

I really thought that Obama was enough of a student of history to know the dangerous, potentially catastrophic folly of sending an army into Afghanistan.

Dr. Joe Blumenthal

This is a futile endeavor as represented by the Iraq situation, the Vietnam experience, the unnecessary loss of American lives and NO progress on any level whatsoever. We are losing more lives of our Young Future leaders for something that is not helping is here in the USA or the rest of the world. DO NOT SEND ANY MORE OF OUR YOUNG PEOLPE TO DIE FOR NOUGHT

davidbrenneman

It seems it would be impossible to win anything in the area. The longer we stay, the more lives are lost, and for what? We should have the troops here to fight terrorist here. Nothing is going to change in Afghanistan. Let's get the hell out now Mr. Obama!

Norene Stucka

Sending more troops to Afghanistan will be just as much of a disaster as when Johnson sent more troops and more troops and more troops into Vietnam. Focus on El Qaeda NOT on rebuilding a country which defeated both the British and Soviets. We cannot win there. Our troops are exhausted and overstressed and it will bankrupt our country. Please do not make this horrible mistake.

JoAnne Hyduck Hopkins

Not worth the lives!!!!!

David Brookbank

Obama represents the U.S. two-party ruling class consensus. That consensus is global domination and perpetual war. Hoh is right, we must get out of Afghanistan. Will we? Eventually, when the Afghan people have defearted us, enough U.S. soldiers have fragged their officers, and the U.S. people are being shot in the streets here at home -- just as the Vietnam war ended. It is time also for people to turn their eyes to the U.S. propaganda (media and official) and war preparations by the U.S. in Latin America. Please devote a portion of your time, reading, and energy to preventing that next U.S. war at the same time that we work to end U.S. imperialist occupations and aggressions in Afghanistan, Iraq, the Phillipines, etc.

203_rod_lopezfabrega

Alexander's Macedonian armies couldn't do it. The British Raj couldn't do it. The Russian's huge army couildn't do it. What makes us think we can successfully occupy this permanent unstable corner of the world that swallows up the world's greatest armies.

Robert Lehan

The NY TimesFrday gave us a story of the US being ripped off by
warlords controlling the N-S corridor along which our supplies are
convoyed. The money they obtain with the sale of our needed supplies
is used to support the Taliban. So our money goes to our enemies. What's wrong with this picture? RL

johnproctor

I was in the Honor Guard during Vietnam. I spent my time burying my brothers from the war. I worked for Obama because I know that Bush got us into wars we were not compelled to pursue and because I was led to believe Obama would get us out. My disappointment and dispair are growing. Have we really succombed to the imperial aspirations of the US right wing?

Elizabeth Sherwood

I firmly believe that it is completely wrong for the United States to be waging war in Afghanistan! Any respect that the sane, civilized countries in the world still have for us will rapidly diminish if we persist in what, for the average citizen in Afghanistan, is considered a foreign invasion. No more troops, dollars, and bloodshed in Afghanistan, please!

JoeS

Withdraw troops and send aid workers and aid, for much less money and many many lives saved.

laurensanders

WASHINGTON ISN'T UP FOR SALE.......IT'S BEEN SOLD...... TO CORPORATE GREED.

laurensanders

How did we prevail over the USSR, bankrupted them. How has O.B.L. said he will defeat us, bankrupt us. Continue the war and you are playing right INTO his plan. As always follow the money too. If the military industrial complex wants this war so bad let them fight and pay for it!!! Watch and see how fast it ends then!!! Taxpayers are getting suckered AGAIN!!!

goddessofpeace

Please stand for the Peace that I am sure you must want. Stop the occupation of Afganistan now.

vince

this is a war that can not be won militarily or thru propping up karzai corrupt regime.withdraw now thus saving face and money we need to spend at home

Marilyn Campbell

Greg Mortensen is perhaps your best "on the ground" observer. Please listen to him.

barbaramoravec

As someone who supported you from the beginning, Mr. Obama, I BEG you to read Greg Mortensen's book Three Cups of Tea. He spent years in Afghanistan building schools for girls. The country needs educated women to bring it into the 21st century. Mr. Mortensen contends that because of the actions of the Bush-Cheney Administration, we will have enemies in Afghanistan for the next 300 years. Our continued involvement in this war we can't win can only make us broke and vulnerable. Please remember the late President Eisenhower's warning about the military-industrial complex. Don't listen to them. Listen to your supporters! Please!

JohnKarol

...and please read Garry Wills's short piece "A One-Term President?" in the current (Dec. 3) issue of The New York Review of Books, at page 8. Do the right thing - get us out of Afghanistan now, before it's too late.

valerie silleck

I voted for you wanting Peace, not more of the same..
Please do not send my son or any mothers child to war.
Live up to your Nobel Peace Prize and end the madness now..
How many more people must die?
Listen to this man he knows what he is talking about..

georgekausch

Please, Mr. President, not another Vietnam, I was there!

jannypants

I agree with the comment "Bin Laden's goal was to bankrupt the American economy and sadly, he's winning." President Obama, how many years spent, lives lost, and money drained from our weak economy will it take before we can say we've "won" or need to come home? Whether we increase or merely maintain present troop numbers, I see only endless involvement and the creation of more enemies than friends.

halsinger

It is hard to add anything relevant except, Please President Obama, listen to this man and all the others trying to say the same thing and remove our troups from Afganistan and Iraq as quickly as possible.

tommatarrese

I agree whole heartedly. The people who are fighting us are winning even that they have no vast army, marines, navy, air force, no tanks but still they are winning and we are losing! The Russians left because they were losing and so should we! Send those GOP assholes McCain, Boehne, Kyl, and the rest to Afghanistan so they could get killed in this lost war which was started by two idiots Bush & Cheney who never served America and had no idea what they were doing there anyway. I think it was the pot that Bush was after being a drug addict!

Sheila Jenca

Be the president I voted, volunteered, and donated for, please.

rheredia

I gree with Smlin Tampa about Bin Laden's goals being realized by our warfare in Afghanistan and Iraq and bankrupting America - - he has succeeded in dividing us as a nation and by the deaths of more and more and more of our American military men and women, as well as those of our allies - - Why do we let him win? Because there is a greedy war machine behind all of this - - people who have no compassion for the Afghani citizens or for the American families who are suffering as w result of their loved ones deployment to these wars - - let's stop it now!

jacquelinerodenberg

I lost many friends in Viet Nam for no good reason. The fact that we did not learn from the past just rips my heart and soul out. Why don't we learn from those who are familiar with the situation there such as Greg Mortenson (author of 3 cups of tea) and Matthew Hoh? Are we so jaded that we don't care how many of our soldiers have died and will die for no good reason?! Our country is also in financial crisis mode and we are spending trillions down a rat hole on these useless, baseless wars.

Daniel J. Andrews

Mr. Hoh and others like him must be presented before the House & Senate and their comments and observations must be taken seriously. Not long ago, we heard so much about decisions being made (primarily in Iraq) based upon the recommendations of those "on the ground". Mr. Hoh has been "on the ground", despite the fact that he does not carry an M-16 or whatever may be the weapon of choice these days. After some eight years of fumbling in Afghanistan, it is time to get out and leave the destiny of that nation to its people.

afgail

If you don't learn from history, you are destined to relive it. Why haven't we learned from our own mistakes in Viet Nam and the Soviet Union's mistake in Afganistan? The Afgan war pushed a weakened Soviet Union into complete collapse. Given our weakened economy do we want to risk the collapse of the United States?

smlinTampa

Let's take care of America and get out of Afghanistan. Bin Laden's goal was to bankrupt the American economy and sadly, he's winning.

lenaboswell

I so agree. Fighting in Afganistan is like struggling in a quicksand pit. We cannot win, because there is nothing to win. They have their ways and we have ours--we are not going to convert anyone, especially since we are the invading enemy. Is it possible to live and let live. Do we have to go to war just because we have the weapons to do so? I believe that Iraq/Afganistan will be more horrible on our collective conscience than Vietnam ever was.

bettycoleman

OUT OF AFGHANISTAN NOW!

ccpennes

END ALL THE WARS,(THE GOP STARTED) SEND NO MORE TROOPS ANYWHERE, SAVE YOUR PRESIDENCY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

muchness1

The GOP did not get us into WWII or Vietnam and the Democrats voted along with the Republicans to go into Iraq. So don't make this about party politics. Keep to the issue - Afghanistan!

ccpennes

YES LYNDON JOHNSON GOT US INTO VIETNAM, BUT BUSH GOT US INTO
TWO ,COUNT THEM TWO WARS, BUSH STARTED A WAR WITH IRAQ, WHEN IT SHOULD
HAVE BEEN WITH AFGHANISTAN, THEY WERE RESPONSIBLE FOR 9/11, AND.... IT
IS THE GOP WHO TURN EVERYTHING I NTO PARTY POLITICS BECAUSE THEY ARE
RACISTS, AND WANT OBAMA TO FAIL, AND THEY HATE HIM, SO NO MATTER WHAT
HE DOES, IF HE GOES TO WAR HE WILL BE CRUCIFIED BY THE GOP, AND IF HE
DOESN'T THEY WILL DO THE SAME, JUST AS THEY ARE BLAMING OBAMA FOR
EVERYTHING, ELSE JOBS, ECONOMY ETC. WHICH WE INHERITED FROM THE BUSH
ADMINISTRATION. SO DON'T SEND ME ANYMORE OF YOUR ABSURD COMMENTS., IN
FACT LEAVE ME ALONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! NO MORE
EMAILS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!