“The underlying assumptions of Vietnam, in my judgment, were absolutely incorrect. The underlying assumption that brought us to Afghanistan was clearly correct.”
. . . but, he's not addressing the escalation of force in that statement. I think his position on Afghanistan is complex and needs to be looked at in its entirety. Sen. Kerry was personally responsible for pushing through the tripling in Pak aid which is probably the most pro-active exercise of Congress to attempt something other than the overt and covert militarism across their border from NATO forces in Afghanistan. He's bound to see that mostly non-U.S. military effort through to some end, but he's also expressed deep reservations about the 'military solution' in Afghanistan and about the wisdom of feathering and defending a corrupt regime indefinitely. Read the article PS posted.
5. More here from the full article linked by ProSense.
More recently, whoever leaked Gen. Stanley McChrystal's assessment that we would fail in Afghanistan without additional forces was trying to pressure President Obama to sign off on a big troop increase before his own deliberations were done. Those inside and outside the military demanding fast action risk subverting the deliberative process and putting us on a road to the mindless escalation that cost tens of thousands of American lives in Vietnam.
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