Iraq was the quagmire. The war that had bogged down. The war that would defy international coalitions, cooperation and persistent action. The war started by one president that would define and unravel another president.
It would sink Obama the way Vietnam sunk Nixon.
How wrong we were. Instead Iraq, while still a flawed country is now showing progress. Despite continuing horrific violence there are signs of hope.
Now Afghanistan is on a precipice. Everyone says so. There is constant strife and as many opinions about what should be done as there are people involved. President Obama struggles to decide what to do about the war there even as pundits demand he do this or that. Now a US official has resigned over the war(http://bit.ly/3aDHVR). The deaths of US servicemen there makes October 2009 the deadliest month of the war(http://bit.ly/4fuCnG).
Today Afghanistan is Vietnam and the media is taking notice. I ripped the title for this post straight off the front page of CNN.com. "Ghost of Vietnam haunts Afghanistan".
I think the homepage screen grab above captures that mood perfectly. Whether it's the font or the picture of faceless soldiers on patrol or a combination of the two it grabbed me. I can't say that website headlines often do that but today it happened.
Anyway-- I wonder if a year from now we'll look back and say October 2009 was when it all turned south. Only time will tell.
