How Afghanistan Can Avoid Becoming Another Vietnam: Huffington Post

Though the dreaded Taliban leader, Baitullah Massoud, may have been killed, the Taliban is still very much in control.

The various groups collectively known as the Taliban are deeply entrenched in much of the Eastern Afghanistan and Western Pakistan even after the recent killing of Taliban leaders, the offensive by the US military in Afghanistan's Helmand Province, the additional deployment of 21,000 troops to the region, the replacement of General David McKiernan by General Stanley McChrystal, the naming of Pakistan as well as Afghanistan as a war zone, the persistence of unmanned predatory drone attacks in Pakistan's sovereign territory, and an economic and social development package of $2.8 billion for Afghanistan and $1.5 billion per year for Pakistan.

Despite all this, the persistent claims by the Pentagon that they see light at the end of the tunnel remind us that Afghanistan is beginning to look a lot like Vietnam. Once again the name of a country has become a symbol, not of a proud people and an ancient tradition, but of a conflict the US should never have entered and a war that it does not know how to end.

Like the North Vietnamese, many Afghan activists --and an increasing number of Pakistanis -- are motivated to fight against US presence because of their love of freedom. They see the US military, like the Soviet forces before them, as a foreign occupying power. The Taliban, as draconian as they may be, are seen as enemies of the enemy: us. It is the US military presence, paradoxically, that is uniting the Taliban and marshalling wide public support behind it.

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