Afghanistan is Not the USA’s Longest War
This article is from 2010, but the math still adds up. From NPR:
Afghanistan hasn’t become the U.S.’ longest war; Vietnam still is, according to someone who should know, Richard Holbrooke, the Obama Administration’s special representative to Afghanistan and Pakistan, who also served as a young American diplomat in Vietnam.
Holbrooke spoke with All Things Considered co-host Robert Siegel Monday (we’ll provide a live link when it becomes available) and took issue with what he sees as a revisionist history being peddled by some in the media who are dating the start of Vietnam to the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution in 1964.
President Lyndon Johnson got Congress to pass the resolution on what many historians consider the trumped-up pretext of a North Vietnamese attack on a U.S. warship …
Nixon Library To Release 265 Hours Of White House Tapes
‘The cease-fire in Vietnam, the release of American prisoners of war, Watergate, U.S. policy in the Middle East, the assassination of two U.S. diplomats in Sudan by the Black September Organization …’ are just a few of the topics discussed on the tapes to be open on Thursday. CNN reports:
The Richard Nixon Presidential Library will open a trove of records at the facility and online Thursday, including 265 hours of White House tapes, officials said.
The library, in Yorba Linda, California, will also open more than 140,000 pages of presidential records and 75 hours of video oral histories, officials said. The library is part of the National Archives.
The White House tapes span February 1973 to March 1973 and include a few from early April 1973. There are no transcripts for these tapes, but the library has produced a detailed subject log for each conversation, National Archives officials said in a statement.
[Continues at…
Daniel Ellsberg: “Every Attack Now Made on WikiLeaks and Julian Assange Was Made Against Me and The Release of the Pentagon Papers at the Time”
Daniel Ellsberg in 2006. Photo: Jacob Appelbaum (CC)
Via Daniel Ellsberg’s Website:
Ex-Intelligence Officers, Others See Plusses in WikiLeaks Disclosures
WikiLeaks has teased the genie of transparency out of a very opaque bottle, and powerful forces in America, who thrive on secrecy, are trying desperately to stuff the genie back in. The people listed below this release would be pleased to shed light on these exciting new developments.
How far down the U.S. has slid can be seen, ironically enough, in a recent commentary in Pravda (that’s right, Russia’s Pravda): “What WikiLeaks has done is make people understand why so many Americans are politically apathetic … After all, the evils committed by those in power can be suffocating, and the sense of powerlessness that erupts can be paralyzing, especially when … government evildoers almost always get away with their crimes. …”
So shame on Barack Obama, Eric Holder, and all those who spew platitudes about integrity,…
The War in Afghanistan Reaches New Milestone: Longest War in U.S. History, Surpasses the Vietnam War
As the Afghanistan War replaces the Vietnam War as the longest war in U.S. history, Brave New Foundation and TrueMajority today called on President Obama and Congress to ensure a responsible troop withdrawal from Afghanistan complete no later than December 2011. Brave New Foundation and TrueMajority released a new video marking the milestone featuring leading experts, including: former military analyst Daniel Ellsberg, Malou Innocent of the CATO Institute, author Tom Hayden and historian Christian Appy speaking to the Vietnamization of Afghanistan and to the staggering cost to Americans totaling almost $300 billion and over 1,000 American lives.
As of Monday, June 7, 2010, the U.S. will have been in Afghanistan for 104 months, more than eight-and-a half years, surpassing the war in Vietnam. In his December 2009 West Point speech, President Obama announced a U.S. military withdrawal from Afghanistan would begin in July 2011. However, he set no end date, leaving open the possibility that U.S. combat troops could remain there indefinitely.
The call for a firm withdrawal end-date comes as Congress debates spending another $33 billion on troop escalation in Afghanistan.
Cyber Attacks Target Critics of Chinalco Mine in Vietnam
From the Sydney Morning Herald:
Google, which moved its search engine out of China last month after claims of cyber attacks on human-rights activists, says it has detected software targeted at critics of bauxite mining in Vietnam.The computers of tens of thousands of people who downloaded Vietnamese language software might be infected with malicious software that spies on users and hijacks computers to disrupt websites, Neel Mehta, of Google’s security team, wrote on Google’s online security blog on Tuesday.
”While the malware itself was not especially sophisticated, it has nonetheless been used for damaging purposes,” Mr Mehta wrote. ”Specifically, these attacks have tried to squelch opposition to bauxite mining efforts in Vietnam, an important and emotionally charged issue in the country.”
The Vietnamese and Chinese cyber attacks were comparable as they demonstrated the use of unsolicited software for political objectives, he wrote.
[Read more at the Sydney Morning Herald]
…
Afghanistan and the “Other” Vietnam War
From Truthout:
When discussing the Vietnam War or comparing it to America’s other conflicts, such as the current one in Afghanistan, the “other” Vietnam War is rarely mentioned. This is very unfortunate, because it might be just the correct path to pursue in seeking a peaceful solution.
And much like President Barack Obama, who inherited the hostilities in Afghanistan, then-President Johnson inherited the Vietnam War. As the war dragged on, some personal aides claimed Johnson was never more ecstatic over Vietnam than when pledging to send billions of dollars to help toward construction and agricultural projects and the economic growth of Southeast Asia and the Mekong River region.
[Read more at Truthout]
