Afghanistan Could Become Obama’s Vietnam Say Experts

Travis Martinez – University of New Mexico, Talk Radio News Service

Experts from the libertarian CATO Institute Friday described the occupation of Afghanistan as President Barack Obama’s Vietnam.

Malou Innocent, a foreign policy analyst and Ted Galen Carpenter, Vice President of Defense and Foreign Policy, said Friday afternoon that without a clear mission, as asked for by many experts, the occupation will be the next Vietnam.

Carpenter suggested that Afghanistan will never become a westernized democracy. “It’s almost a misnomer calling it a nation-state,” he said. Carpenter argued that the modern industrial world often pushes western philosophy on to other very different cultures and non-industrial nations. Such forcing of culture is often ill received he said.

Carpenter also touched base on countering narcotics, which he claims would alienate local and regional power brokers who support the US NATO mission and the Karzai administration. A so-called war on drugs would be devastating for Afghanistan.