Not only does the US-led occupation of Afghan have similarities with 
Vietnam, it has similarities with the doomed attempt by Soviets to impose 
their will in the country ...

http://edition.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/10/27/afghanistan.vietnam/

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Eric Margolis, a veteran journalist and former Army soldier who served 
during the Vietnam War, said the biggest problem the United States is facing 
now -- as in Vietnam -- is fighting the mostly poor, rural insurgents who 
live among Afghans.

"It makes it very difficult to drive them out because they can stay there 
forever. ... They're at home. When we attack villages where they are, we 
kill a lot of civilians, causing an uproar and turning the people more 
against us."

Steve Clemons, of the non-partisan New America Foundation, said one of the 
factors in the Soviet-Afghan War was the brutal attacks inflicted on both 
fighters and civilians by the Soviets.

"[There] was the sense of outrage and grievance at some of the things that 
they had done and the triggering of a deeply felt emotional antagonism to 
the Soviet effort to dominate and colonize Afghanistan among the Pashtun."

He worries that if the United States fails to focus on a more humanitarian 
and diplomatic approach, Americans will fall into the same trap the Soviets 
faced, which ultimately led to them leaving the country defeated.

"I think one of the things I'm concerned about is whether or not we're 
triggering those same kind of emotions among the Pashtuns today. And believe 
me, the Pashtuns don't care whether they're [going after] Americans or going 
after the Soviets. If you begin to threaten their own perception of their 
own independence then you turn Pashtuns into Taliban."

Journalist Margolis also compared the government of Afghanistan to the 
government of South Vietnam.

"In both cases, the government of Saigon and Kabul are heavily influenced by 
minorities. We have made our enemies [among] the ethnic majority in 
Afghanistan who are the Pashtuns -- pretty well cut them out of power."

A CNN/Opinion Research Corp. poll, taken October 16-18, showed 59 percent of 
Americans opposed sending more troops into the country. The same poll found 
that 52 percent of Americans consider the war in Afghanistan has turned into 
another Vietnam War situation, while 46 say it's not.

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