[Peace-discuss] "Lessons in Disaster": If Obama Caves to the Pentagon, He's No Jack Kennedy

[Robert Naiman]

President Obama knows better than to agree to General McChrystal's
proposal for military escalation in Afghanistan. He read the book.

On October 7, the Wall Street Journal reported that top officials of
the Obama Administration, including President Obama himself, had
recently read Gordon Goldstein's book on the path to U.S. military
escalation in Vietnam: Lessons in Disaster: McGeorge Bundy and the
Path to War in Vietnam.

The Journal reported that "For opponents of a major troop increase,
led by Biden and Emanuel, "'Lessons in Disaster' ... encapsulates
their concerns about accepting military advice unchallenged."

Indeed, a central theme of the book is President Kennedy's
willingness, on the question of ground troops in Vietnam, to do what
President Obama has not yet done regarding demands for military
escalation in Afghanistan: stand up to the U.S. military and say no.
...
As former Marine captain Matthew Hoh recently wrote in his letter of
resignation as a top U.S. official in Afghanistan,

"I want people in Iowa, people in Arkansas, people in Arizona, to call
their congressman and say, 'Listen, I don't think this is right.' "

Now there's a great American patriot. Do what he says.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-naiman/lessons-in-disaster-if-ob_b_335444.html

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/10/27/122437/00

http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/node/382

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Robert Naiman
Just Foreign Policy
www.justforeignpolicy.org
naiman at justforeignpolicy.org