Bill Sykes' - In Retrospect
XXI.
(January 2010)
Bill
Sykes looks back in retrospect at material which has
been published in previous editions of "View from
America", in an attempt to determine whether the
subject matter written then is still applicable in
today’s world.
Article #21B.
Are the current Middle East wars a mirror image of the Vietnam War?
Many Americans still, (after all these years), firmly believe that America won the war in Vietnam. They apparently discount the fact that when the American forces were about to leave Vietnam, the American army commanders and the home style politicians declared that the Southern Vietnam armed forces were fully trained and were capable of withstanding any attack, or onslaught, which could come from the North Vietnamese forces.
What a load of rubbish!
A short time after the American forces departed the country, the North Vietnamese Army stormed South Vietnam and took over the complete country without a fight and it appears that the people of a United Vietnam have lived together peaceably and prosperously ever since.
Depending how one looks at the Vietnam/Laos/Cambodia war, the actual date of the start of the war is a little confusing. The initial entry of America military forces into the Vietnam conflict is also a little hazy as US military advisors apparently arrived in Vietnam as early as 1950 and the US military involvement escalated during the period of the early 1960s until 1973 when the last of the American troops left Vietnam.
In 1957 America had 751 troops in Vietnam and their numbers peaked in 1968 to 537,377 and gradually wound down over the next five years to 265 in 1973.
Direct American military ground force involvement was prohibited by the US Congress after August 1973, and the war ended shortly after the North Vietnam Army captured Saigon in April of 1975.
One must remember that as many as at least 60,000 American military personnel lost their lives when fighting another lost cause in the Vietnam/Laos/Cambodia war.
So, whilst not forgetting the Iraqi war, the question then arises as to whether the Afghan war is another Vietnam? In my opinion - of course it is - with more young American soldiers being sent to potentially die, for what - why of course a lost cause where the corrupt government of President Hamid Karzai, who as recently as a couple of weeks ago openly warned the world at large, and the American government in particular, that it will take another 16 more years before the country of Afghanistan will be able to provide the money in order to fully develop its own security forces.
One must remember that the British military fought to subdue the hostile Afghans before the First World War commenced, in order it would appear to defend the British occupation of India, (pre-Pakistan era), and this was followed in latter years by an incursion of the Russian military into Afghanistan, to shall we say defend the USSR countries that border the Afghanistan frontier and prevent those countries from being invaded.
Both Great Britain and Russia finally had to admit that it was a useless mission and sensibly pulled out of that dreadful country. Now it’s America’s turn to try to show to the world that their superior military forces can subdue the notorious Taliban, (whom incidentally America supported when the Afghans were fighting the Russian Army).
Afghanistan is a terrible country to fight any kind of war in and the American forces are encountering the same difficulties that both Britain and Russia encountered in this terrible very rough mountainous terrain and the tough Afghan fighters.
Mr. President, do I have to remind you that we are still currently paying out somewhere in the region of 14 billion dollars per month to conduct the phony war in Iraq! So please Mr. President tell the American people how many more billions of dollars will have to be added to our current huge national debt in order to continue conducting a long and bloody war in Afghanistan?
It is very difficult pinning down the actual total United States outstanding public debt at any particular date. For instance when President William Jefferson Clinton left office in January 2001, it was reported that there was a public surplus of $559B. Yet when President George W Bush, (Clinton’s successor), who was sworn in on the 20th of January 2001, had completed his first term in office, the total American outstanding public debt had grown from a $559B positive balance to a $5,727,776,738,304, negative balance.
Yes that’s trillions, and when President Bush left office at the completion of his second term in office, on the 20th of January 2009, the total American outstanding national Debt had apparently doubled to a $10,626,877,048,612 negative balance. Please correct me if you think that these figures are incorrect.
The total United States national debt has continued to increase by approximately $4B per day since the
28th of September 2007 and currently each American citizen’s share of that debt is approximately $40,000.
Now let us take a look at President Obama’s first year in office. The total United States outstanding public debt, as of the 1st January 2010, was quoted as being a negative $12,149,084,516,375, which is an increase in the total outstanding debt of $1,522,207,467,763.
Mr. President we the people desperately need to know what your future intentions are with respect to the two un-winnable wars.
Question: In your opinion is it to try to civilize or subdue the warlike Afghan people, which is nigh impossible? Or perhaps on the other hand have you been conned by the warmongering politicians and the higher ranking military officers into believing that we must win this war as it is aimed at preventing the Taliban from gaining access to Pakistan’s, (and maybe India’s), nuclear power resources, as it certainly cannot be to subdue the warring Afghan tribal structure?
There may be some relativity in that thinking, as we must acknowledge that the Taliban are now strongly entrenched in the area of the Pakistan/Afghanistan border region, and maybe they do have the aim of trying to take over the Pakistan nuclear power resources.
We know of course who provided Israel with the materials and the finances to build its nuclear power resources, the question of course now arises as to who provided Pakistan and India with the materials to build their nuclear power resources, and why?
Mr. President beware the aims of some of your politicians who, when counseling you, appear on the surface to have the good of the country at heart, but many of the common people of this country think otherwise and in many cases they believe that when politicians get into power they misrepresent the facts and stretch the truth to further their own political aims.
The general public also believe that politicians look after their own interests before looking after the interests of general public that voted them into power, and in general they the politicians are natural power seekers and perennial money grabbers who’s votes in a number of cases are influenced by financial and other gifts, which have been given, or provided, by lobbyists who want to influence those same members of Congress that they are dealing with to vote in favor of the companies that they the lobbyists represent.
It must be remembered that in general we don’t find politicians fighting wars, we find them starting wars by providing false and misleading statements,
Footnotes:
A comment taken from the November 16th. 2009, Edition of Newsweek.
Quote: "Insisting we might have won in Vietnam might just lose us Afghanistan".
Disclaimer:
Some of the information gathered for this news letter has been gleaned from American and international media sources, (including the internet), and as such is quoted as accurately as possible.
I try to obtain confirmation on each subject from several outlets, so the text is a mixture of composite items and personal comments and therefore the reader must make his/her own judgment as to the reliability and degree of accuracy of the subjects discussed.
Eric (Bill) Sykes, (Southern California).
January 2010.
We welcome feedback about any of the contents
of these newsletters. Please send all correspondence to bill_sykes@huddersfield1.co.uk
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