How do you get out of a deep hole?
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On December 2, 2009, as polls revealed growing dissatis-
faction with the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, President
Barack Obama promised to withdraw all U.S. troops
from Iraq within two years. But he announced that he
would send an additional 30,000 troops to Afghanistan,
where the situation had deteriorated.
“I do not make this decision lightly,” he said, notingthat he had opposed the war in Iraq. But Afghanistan, he
insisted, was different. It had been the home of the Al
Qaeda terrorists who attacked on September 11, 2001.
By sending more troops to Afghanistan now, Obama
believed the military would defeat Al Qaeda more
quickly. “There are those who suggest that Afghanistan
is another Vietnam,” he conceded. “I believe this argu-
ment depends on a false reading of history.”
Because nothing in the past is exactly like anything
else, all historical analogies are flawed. But the history of
Vietnam suggests that once soldiers have fought and
died for a cause, the task of getting out of a war—short
of victory—is not an easy one.