![]() ![]() operations in Afghanistan were not focused on nation-building in the beginning, by 2019, Washington had spent US$87 billion training and equipping the Afghan military and police forces US$24 billion on economic development and US$30 billion on reconstruction programs, according to the New York Times. During that meeting, Rumsfeld made the point that reconstruction, stabilization and nation-building in Afghanistan - while badly needed - were tasks best suited to countries like Canada and a few European countries, not the United States. In January 2003, I was chief of staff to Canadian Defence Minister John McCallum and we attended a meeting in the Pentagon with U.S. In this 1998 photograph, al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden is shown in Afghanistan. Afghanistan has been both America’s longest war and America’s forgotten war. Twenty years after 9/11, with about 2,500 American fatalities in Afghanistan - less than five per cent of the total in Vietnam - the Afghan war has not been top of mind for most Americans for years. troop withdrawal from Afghanistan, the Afghan war was not a major issue in the last two presidential elections. While polls suggest 60 per cent to 70 per cent of Americans favoured U.S. This is in sharp contrast to American involvement in Afghanistan today. public would no longer tolerate involvement in Vietnam. With a partially conscripted force, 58,000 dead and 153,000 wounded Americans, the U.S. ![]() ![]() Johnson did not seek re-election.īy the early 1970s, American involvement in Vietnam was no longer sustainable for any U.S. But there are also some big differences.īy the late 1960s, the Vietnam War was the most divisive issue in America, central to both the 19 presidential elections. These and other similarities between these two conflicts are striking. ![]() EEmbassy in Saigon, trying to reach evacuation helicopters as the last Americans departed from Vietnam. In this April 1975 photo, South Vietnamese civilians try to scale the wall of the U.S. ![]()
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