Does the president’s challenge in Afghanistan mirror Johnson’s troubles in Vietnam?
Johnson, like Obama, faced divisions in the White House and Congress on whether to escalate the war, and both wars are incredibly messy with no clear-cut enemy, Zelizer said. Obama, however, has Vietnam to learn from. “The memories and the fears of Vietnam, they’re shaping the debate over Afghanistan,” Zelizer said. How must Obama sell the war to Congress and Americans to win their backing? The president must stress that Afghanistan is a war that he inherited and terrorism must be fought “where it germinates,” said Julius Hobson, a defense lobbying expert and senior policy adviser at Bryan Cave LLP. What strategy must he pursue along with the troop increase to stabilize the region? Michael Semple, an expert on the Taliban and a former EU official, advocates “flipping the Taliban,” or working with insurgents on a diplomatic level and including them in the nation-building process. “This is not one of those wars [Obama is] just going to be able to shoot his way out of,” Semple said. “He w
