George McGovern has some advice for President Barack Obama: Get U.S. troops out of Afghanistan.

[laststeamtrain]

McGovern: Get Out of Afghanistan
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20091103_mcgovern_get_out_of_afghanistan/
Posted on Nov 4, 2009

By Narda Zacchino

Editor’s note: A video excerpt of McGovern’s comments can be found below this article. Stay tuned for more coverage of the salon.

George McGovern has some advice for President Barack Obama: Get U.S. troops out of Afghanistan.

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The former U.S. senator from South Dakota noted that “some of the best reporters over there are telling us that the Taliban are getting stronger and we’re getting weaker in the minds of the people, and that you have a corrupt government involved in drugs, involved in just plain old-fashioned stealing and corruption. It’s a lousy government, and it’s very difficult, even for a great country like , to make them look good. So I think we have every reason to withdraw.”

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McGovern said Sunday he did not want to see Obama head down the path of Democrat Lyndon Johnson, for whom another quagmire, the Vietnam War, spelled the end to his presidency. The former legislator, who won the Distinguished Flying Cross for heroism during World War II, noted he was the first member to oppose the Vietnam War on the floor of the Senate.

A historian, McGovern said he would remind Obama that foreign powers have been trying unsuccessfully to prevail in Afghanistan “ever since Alexander the Great. Genghis Khan even made a shot at it. The British throughout the 19th century were in there several times trying to pacify the and finally gave up. The Russians were there for 11 years, 1979 until 1990, they put in 100,000 crack soldiers, 25,000 of them killed ... in Afghanistan, another 25,000 crippled or injured. And the Russian treasury went broke, and some of our best Soviet experts believe that’s what really led to the collapse of the Soviet Union.”

Asked how he would get out of Afghanistan if he were president, McGovern said: “I would say to the Afghan people that ‘we’ve been here for eight years, and we’ve come to the conclusion we can’t resolve your problems. You’ve got the Taliban, you may have al-Qaida, but—our soldiers have fought, died bravely—but it’s my conclusion, as president of the United States, that we can’t resolve the problems here. We’ll do what we can to help you, but we can’t do it with our military forces. As a matter of fact, while we’ve been here, the Taliban have grown stronger, and we don’t know where al-Qaida is—we think they’re in Pakistan—but having our troops in Afghanistan is not going to help that. So it’s our judgment that the best thing for us, and maybe for you, is for you to take over the handling of your own problems.”

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http://www.truthdig.com/report/print/20091103_mcgovern_get_out_of_afghanistan/

[FLAprogressive]

1. I agree with him but this guy totally lost all cred with me when he came out against EFCA

[elocs]

2. My fear is that Obama is going down the LBJ Vietnam road, always adding troops to attain

that ever elusive victory. It's that carrot, right there at the end of the stick.

The Afghanis have to want their country more than the Taliban or al-Qaida want it. With our backing and arming they should be able to hold their own if they want their own country badly enough.

[amandabeech]

3. To paraphrase, "Who will be the last soldier to die for a lost cause."

Just think of what we could do here with the money that we are now and will be throwing away in Afghanistan.

Real jobs programs?

Health care for all?

Reasonably priced education?

Fogress for student loans?

Weatherization of homes and workplaces?

And if we really extricate ourselves from Iraq?

Sell fewer government bonds to countries that aren't friends?