Two, Three, Many Vietnams

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Notes

 [1] This talk was delivered on 3 May 2006. Since then the change in the situation in Afghanistan, suggested here, has accelerated.

 [2] David Ignatius, “In Iraq, They're Revisiting Vietnam-Era Counterinsurgency.” The Daily Star, 8 November 2005. Available from http:/yaleGlobal.yale.edu [accessed 17 January 2006]; INTERNET.

 [3] Caroline Elkins, “Royal Screwup.” The New Republic, 19 December 2005.

 [4] All quotes from Andrew F. Krepinevich, Jr., “How to Win in Iraq.” FA, September/October 2005. Available from www.foreignaffairs.org [accessed 16 January 2006]; INTERNET.

 [5] Lawrence F. Kaplan, “Why Bush's New Document on Iraq Sounds Familiar.” TNR Online, 1 December 2005 [accessed 16 January 2006]; INTERNET. See also Steven Metz, “Unlearning Counterinsurgency,” for critical comments on the simplistic approach to insurgency of the US military and civilian command. Available from www.strategicstudiesinstitute.army.mil/newsletter/opeds/2004nov [accessed 18 January 2006]; INTERNET.

 [6] George W. Bush, 30 November 2005, US Naval Academy. Available from www.whitehouse.gov [accessed 17 January 2006]; INTERNET.

 [7] On 7 June 2006, Zarqawi died in a bombing raid on his safe house in Baghdad. In possible acknowledgement of their own earlier inflation of his importance, the American military ‘offered an immediate warning against overstating the impact’ that his death would have on the insurgency.

 [8] For example, General Hugh Shelton, chairman of the JCS from 1997 to 2001, assigned the book to other members of the JCS. In a 1999 interview discussing the ‘lessons of Vietnam’, McMaster described reading declassified documents on Vietnam and realizing that ‘far from an inevitable result of the imperative to contain communism, the war was only made possible through lies and deceptions aimed at the American public, Congress, and members of Lyndon Johnson's own administration’.

 [9] Ellen Knickmeyer, “U.S. Airstrikes Take Toll on Civilians.” WP, 24 December 2005.

[10] “Tomgram: Dahr Jamail on the Missing Air War in Iraq,” 5 January 2006. Available from www.tomdispatch.com [accessed 6 January 2006]; INTERNET.

[11] Seymour Hersh, “Up in the Air: Where is the Iraq War Headed Next?” New Yorker, 12 December 2005.

[12] Young, Vn Wars, 325.