Have we already lost Afghanistan?

Obama says “We have not lost” in Afghanistan — but some commentators disagree

President Obama invoked Vietnam four times in his Afghanistan “surge” speech at West Point on Tuesday, arguing that the two wars are different, and that “we have not lost” in Afghanistan. But pundits and analysts on both sides of the political spectrum aren’t so sure Afghanistan isn’t another quagmire. Is Obama sending 30,000 more troops to a war we’ve already lost? (Watch Sen. John McCain express support for Obama's troop escalation)

Obama can’t win this: Obama’s faith in the Afghanistan war won’t be enough to salvage it, says Richard Cohen in The Washington Post. Just like "Korea defeated Truman, Vietnam doomed Johnson, and Iraq put a dunce cap on Bush," Obama can’t "prevail in Afghanistan—not with another 30,000 troops," and not in 18 months, especially given the "isolationist stupor" our war-weary nation is slipping into.

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