Charlie Wilson Comes Out Against Charlie Wilson's War, the Sequel

You remember Tom Hanks played him, and he allegedly the one who made the Soviet Union's Afghan war so disastrous.

Well, now, 2 years off a heart transplant, he has something to say about our role in Afghanistan, get out now:

"We (screwed) up the end game," Mr. Wilson said. "It would have been very easy and done for a minuscule amount of money. We should have done the basic things for a backward country that's trying to come out of (a war) and have a reasonable hope of economic success."

As President Obama considers whether to send tens of thousands of more troops to Afghanistan, Mr. Wilson worries that the war could become "another Vietnam."

"It's probably best to make a calculated withdrawl," he said. "If I were the president, I'm not sure what I'd do. I'd probably shut it down, rather than lose a lot of soldiers and treasure."

He says this as someone who knows as well as anyone just how fierce and tenacious the Afghan fighters are.

"I'd rather take on a chain saw," Mr. Wilson said. "They're the world's best foot soldiers, best warriors. And they're fearless.

"They're fearless, and they've got nothing to lose. And they have a pretty serious hatred for those who try to occupy their country."

In a nutshell he explains why Vietnam and Afghanistan are alike. If you are there, and you are an occupier, they will hate you.

Barack Obama should listen, but I think that instead he will listen to general officers who never learned the lesson of Vietnam.

As I have said many times, the US military believes that we lost because the American public turned against the war, when the reality is that the Vietnamese beat us (without winning a single battle, BTW), because nationalism creates unity and self sacrifice against the occupier.