What to ask before waging war

[laststeamtrain]

What to ask before waging war - Opinion

McNamara learned lessons from Vietnam that should have been applied to Afghanistan

July 09, 2009
Eugene Lang

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McNamara was also a textbook example of why no president should ever put a brilliant but narrow-minded statistician and automobile company executive in charge of a war.

Two decades after American forces withdrew in humiliation and defeat from their sojourn into the jungles of Vietnam, a guilt-ridden, more broad-minded and realistic McNamara posited the following five questions he felt should have been asked prior to American military involvement in Southeast Asia:

Was it true that the fall of South Vietnam would trigger the fall of all Southeast Asia?

Would that constitute a grave threat to the West's security?

What kind of war – conventional or guerrilla – might develop?

Could America win it with U.S. troops fighting alongside the South Vietnamese?

Should Washington not know the answers to all these questions before deciding whether to commit troops?

Variations on McNamara's five questions should have been asked before the U.S., Canada and other Western nations committed forces to Afghanistan eight years ago. There is little evidence that they were. Had they been asked, what might the answers have been?

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http://www.thestar.com/comment/article/663054

[sam sarrha]

1. who's starting this to make a shit load of money.!!