I was just looking over the text of Senator Joe Biden’s recent speech (opens in PDF) to the Brookings Institute about the current situation in Iraq.
While reading of his experiences on a recent trip to that country, as well his description of foreign fighters pouring through the loose borders, I was struck by the seeming similarities to the Soviet invasion and occupation of Afghanistan. True, the motives for the two invasions were completely different, but the end results strike me (at least at first glance) as oddly similar.
In both, there is a country that is vastly superior in terms of technology, finances, and armaments fighting a loose coalition of insurgents. Both become magnets for Islamic fundamentalists from other countries who are looking to spread their jihad. I’m clearly not the first person to have noticed these similarities, and I have to admit I haven’t put a lot of thought into it, which should be clear from the fragmentary nature of this posting. However, seeing how the Afghanistan war turned out for the Soviets, I’d say there is a good deal of reason to devote further thought to these comparisons. Of course, the Soviets were on much shakier ground than the US when they went off on their little adventure, but still…
At the same time, I feel I should say that I’m not suggesting the US should pull out of Iraq unilaterally. There are plenty of people on my side of the aisle making that suggestion, and frankly, it’s crazy-talk. In a way, that’s the frightening beauty of the Bush administration’s strategy—I can complain all I want about why we went to war, the lies that were told to get us there, how much it’s costing to continue the occupation, and how much better off we’d be if we hadn’t invaded in the first place, but the fact that we’re there renders all of that discussion moot in most regards. Because of what the administration has done, we’re now stuck there.
Depressing, ain’t it?