The Silent Winter of Escalation

by Norman Solomon

"Sunday morning, before dawn, I read in the New York Times that "the Pentagon is planning to add more than 20,000 troops to Afghanistan" within the next 18 months – "raising American force levels to about 58,000" in that country......

Is Afghanistan the same as Vietnam? Of course, competent geographers would say no. But the United States is the United States – with domestic continuity between two eras of military intervention, spanning five decades, much more significant than we might think.

Bedrock faith in the Pentagon's massive capacity for inflicting violence is implicit in the nostrums from anointed foreign-policy experts. The echo chamber is echoing: the Afghanistan war is worth the cost that others will pay."