Afghanistan not Vietnam: Obama

WASHINGTON - Feeling the heat over his policy in Afghanistan in the face of the rising American deaths, US President Barack Obama rejected comparisons between the deepening US involvement in Afghanistan and the Vietnam war, and pledged a full debate before making further decisions on strategy..
You have to learn lessons from history. On the other hand, each historical moment is different, Obama said in a joint interview with The New York Times and CNBC television.
The President promised to weigh the recommendation of the top commander in Afghanistan, Gen Stanley McChrystal, on whether the United States should commit more troops, the Times said. But he took issue with assertions that the job of dismantling terrorism networks can be handled by drones and other alternatives to soldiers on the ground.
I assure you that if that were the case, you wouldnt see 68,000 of our young men and women deployed in Afghanistan, he said.
Some commentators have suggested that Obama could suffer the same fate as 1960s Democratic president Lyndon Johnson who saw his reformist administration eventually consumed by an entanglement in a war half a world away.
But Obama, who is aiming to enact an ambitious domestic agenda while dealing with multiple crises abroad, rejected the comparison.
You never step into the same river twice. And so Afghanistan is not Vietnam, he said.
Obama is currently considering a strategic review of US operations in Afghanistan and is widely expected to receive a request from the military for more US troops in the coming weeks.
The president added in the interview however that he thought all the time about the dangers of overreach in Afghanistan and of not having clear goals or strong support from the American people on the war.