Charlie Rose

REMant  01/12/2010 04:28 PM Report

More spin. Typical of Holbrooke I'd say. The goals set out by McChrystal were narrow to begin with, but the admin refused to say that, and it still is like pulling teeth. Biden said recently that the goal was to go after al Qaeda et al, but that the immediate situation required an increase to shore up the govt. (I can't imagine why the admin always says Biden is a loose cannon.) That comes on the heels of Gates' testimony that full-blown counter-insurgency was never in view. But there is also an absolute refusal to see that the Afghan ppl may well side with the Taliban or at least abandon the Karzai govt, just as the Vietnamese did and for the same reasons. Vietnamese agriculture had gone to hell also, BTW, which is the reason why Michigan State played such a big part in the war's history, but the US did next to nothing to help that. As I understand it we have had far more American non-combatants there than he indicates. He is not counting all the contractors. Maybe we should give all those high-level visitors some weapons, too. Obviously the Chinese and Russians have Muslim problems, but I do not suppose any Shiites or Palestinians are among those in Muslim countries interested in supporting this. The Sunnis are potentially at war with the Shiites. Also we spent much, much more in Vietnam than they say we are going to spend here, so obviously somebody thought they were a threat of some consequence. And he is completely wrong about the Viet Cong, etc, esp at this stage, which is equivalent to the Diem period, and I have to take exception to this line about monolithic Communism. I have heard several saying this. I suggest they all pick up a copy of Frances Fitzgerald's Fire in the Lake. Holbrooke seems to have been one of the true believers in Vietnam, and involved in the Phoenix program to assassinate Viet Cong, so I'd surmise that he will go to his grave believing they were all children of the Devil. After the war he was involved in bringing thousands of Vietnamese to this country. I have always objected to political parties making use of ppl like him to further their agendas and I think it is a serious problem with our system of govt.