So, Did the Surge really work?

The Real News interviewed Ray McGovern, a veteran security advisor to the US, about Iraq, Afghanistan and Obama.


I don't want to pass judgement too much on this; rather, just see what he has to say and make up your own mind.

The idea that the surge worked is a mainstream view that has been accepted by both parties in the US. Whether they were right to do so, and whether surge-type operations are a success, is vitally important right now as the new Obama administration plans for an escalation of the Afghan conflict.

As McGovern points out (and no matter how frequently the comparisons have been mentioned in the last seven years), Afghanistan could be 'Obama's Vietnam'.

I believe that the resilience of the Taliban as an enemy, combined with the problems with terrain in some areas of the country, as well as the enemy's safe haven in Waziristan, means that comparisons with the US-Indochina conflict are not overblown or sensationalist, and that, if escalation fails, it will be the biggest US disaster since Vietnam. Bigger than Iraq.