By Larry Marsh, Kansas City Star Midwest Voices columnist
The challenge the United States faces in Afghanistan is more analogous to what Russia faced in Chechnya than our own experience in Vietnam.
The First Chechen War lasted from 1994 to 1996. It was much shorter than our involvement in Vietnam, but ended with Russian troops leaving after being unsuccessful in attempting to subdue the insurrection in Chechnya. The insurgents had the advantage of very mountainous terrain and eventually attacked the capital, Grozny. The battle for Grozny produced a bloodbath that convinced the Russian public that enough was enough. The Russians then agreed to a ceasefire and a year later signed a peace treaty. Up to that point at least the technical aspects were like a mini-version of our experience in Vietnam.
The new president of Chechnya did not completely control the various ethnic tribes but eventually declared Sharia law in Chechnya. In spite of the peace treaty insurgents from Chechnya attacked neighboring Dagestan with the declared intent of establishing a union of Chechnya and Dagestan. Dagestan is a region right next to Chechnya (think Pakistan) which shared ethnic ties to Chechnya (think Pashtun).
What happened next might be called Russia's 9/11 experience. A series of similar bombings took place in Russia that were blamed on the Chechen separatists. A bomb went off at a shopping center in Moscow in August 1999 followed within weeks by numerous bombings at apartment buildings and elsewhere in Moscow and several other Russian cities that killed hundreds of Russians. A previously unknown group called the Liberation Army of Dagestan claimed responsibility.
This is somewhat different from our experience in Vietnam, but somewhat similar to what has happened and is happening in Afghanistan.
Moreover, approximately 4,000 foreigners are fighting alongside the Taliban in Afghanistan including many from Chechnya. Although US allies have come mostly from NATO countries, Russia, India and China have a more immediate interest in our success in Afghanistan, not to mention Pakistan and, with some mixed feelings, Iran.
However, the similarity to Vietnam may yet emerge. If President Obama decides to substantially increase our troops in Afghanistan he may split the Democratic Party, and we may see Vietnam-style demonstrations once again on the streets in America.
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Also see:
Afghan election fraud is hard pill to swallow
McChrystal's Afghanistan troop request must wait for election results
How to determine if we can achieve stability in Iraq and Afghanistan
Strange strategy backfires: Iranian President Ahmadinejad fools no one except himself
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Yes, Jenniferm I know. I was around then.
My point was that a Dem got us into a bad war. They like to pretend it didn't happen. Yes Nixon escalated it to try to end it, but in '68 we were already committed. Big difference!
Actually no
Actually no, Nixon didn't finally call it quits. After he was elected in 1968 he escalated the war (to some extent) AND thousands and thousands of additional lives were lost prior to the peace accords in 1973.
If everything after 1.20.2009 is Obama's responsibility (which is very true) then everything that happened in southeast Asia after Nixon became POTUS is his.
Obama is a combination of the worst of the GOP presidents--Nixon and Bush. Its becoming clearer and clearer everyday.
And kenm_1262
usually the people who compare Vietnam to another war are liberals. What they forget is that the Vietnam war started under Kennedy, continued under Johnson, and Nixon finally called it quits.
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Now I don't fault a political party for Vietnam, but I just find it funny that liberals always try to re-write history and pin the bad stuff on conservatives - when in this case, is BS.
I am not sure I see any real
I am not sure I see any real evidence that Chechnya is like Viet Nam or Afghanistan. The only similarities that I see with Afghanistan is radical Islam as a motivater for violence. Chechnya is a province of Russia that attempted to break away and the Russians fought to keep it in the fold. The Russians pretty much destroyed most of Grozney and drove thousands out of the region.
Viet Nam is nothing like Afghanistan, unless you equate the political discussions in DC as being similar. At some point the media and politicians will have to quit using Viet Nam in their discussions of any war.