Obama, Beware: Afghanistan Is 'Another Vietnam'

Domestic issues must trump unwinnable war: Dem elder statesman
Posted Dec 13, 2009 12:10 PM CST
Obama, Beware: Afghanistan Is 'Another Vietnam'
Sen. George McGovern speaks at the National World War II Museum in New Orleans on April 18, 2009. McGovern, a decorated WWII pilot, spoke about his war experiences and his book on Abraham Lincoln.   (AP Photo/Bill Haber)

When George McGovern hears about President Obama's plans for Afghanistan, he reluctantly reaches an unavoidable conclusion. "I can only think: another Vietnam," the 1972 Democratic presidential nominee writes in the Washington Post. "I hope I am incorrect, but history tells me otherwise." After 9 years at war, he asks: "Why waste these fine soldiers any longer?"

McGovern, a World War II veteran, revisits his vociferous opposition to involvement in Vietnam and uses Lyndon Johnson's story as a cautionary tale for Obama. "Johnson had a brilliant record in domestic affairs, but Vietnam choked his dream of a Great Society," he cautions. "The war had become unbearable to so many Americans—civilian and military—that the landslide victor of 1964 did not seek reelection four years later."
(More President Obama stories.)

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