Vietnam? Why Would You Compare Afghanistan To Vietnam?

Today is publication day for "The Afghanistan Papers." With US troops gone from the country, the debate over what went wrong during the last 20 years is just starting. This book is an attempt to hold people accountable. 1/x https://t.co/zhBKbOH1gZ

— Craig Whitlock (@CraigMWhitlock) August 31, 2021

The world is wondering if the United States still has credibility, a problem that can only be solved by invading another country or two, says retired official who serves on the board of multiple defense contractors

— Paul Waldman (@paulwaldman1) August 31, 2021

...keeping in mind that, if there was an exit plan, it wound up looking nothing like what the president said it would look like, just a few weeks ago:https://t.co/jzvSw4bdMC

— Alexander Panetta (@Alex_Panetta) August 31, 2021

No plan survives its encounter with reality. I feel like that's a lesson from Vietnam.

MSNBC expert schools Republicans on what disastrous withdrawals actually looked like through historyhttps://t.co/P7ot6eWRHj

— Raw Story (@RawStory) August 31, 2021

"When we left Vietnam in 1975, you could argue that every member, every citizen of South Vietnam worked for the Americans during that war and we took a few thousand people out," Stengel continued. "We left while we were being fired upon by the enemy. You know, the country was taken over. So, those are disastrous withdrawals. I just wanted to put that in perspective. I'm not exonerating or explaining away what happened, but that's just some historical perspective."

GOP lawmaker says American girls will be 'raped and killed in the streets' if we let Afghan refugees inhttps://t.co/qpkzRPicrY

— Raw Story (@RawStory) August 31, 2021

I don't think the xenophobia was quite so bad in '75, but there was a lot of resentment of Vietnamese shrimpers on the Gulf Coast for awhile.  Now they're part of the industry.  Besides, Viet-Cajun crawdads are a thing!

Final U.S. Soldiers In Afghanistan Do Some Last-Second Nation-Building On Way To Plane https://t.co/vyMPt5y8Wi pic.twitter.com/mDWEtqfvpA

— The Onion (@TheOnion) August 31, 2021

And it's funnier sooner.