Regarding Washington Post analyst Anthony H. Cordesman's Sept. 28 article, "Long-range plan for Afghanistan would help": Washington's positions on the Saudi monarchy, its historical support for military regimes in Pakistan, its acquiescence to the inhuman Israeli repression of Palestinians, its unwelcome occupation of Okinawa, its invasion of Iraq despite the absence of any weapons of mass destruction matching those of NATO, its foisting of the cunning (President) Hamid Karzai on the Afghans, its past sponsorship of hoodlums like Egypt's Hosni Mubarak and Libya's Moammar Gadhafi, and its defiance of all norms of international law in the assassination of Osama bin Laden followed by the surreptitious disposal of his remains leave Cordesman's nation bereft of any moral authority to influence world affairs.
Abject withdrawal from Kabul will be America's inevitable fate for failing to learn the lessons of Vietnam's history. Shame will only grow as U.S. citizens fail to see the stark truth.
The opinions expressed in this letter to the editor are the writer's own and do not necessarily reflect the policies of The Japan Times.
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