Jonathan Schell:The Fifty-Year War

Comparing the Vietnam War to the war in Afghanistan, Jonathan Schell of The Nation Institute writes, the art of victory has to be to try to set up a government that can both survive U.S. withdrawal and serve U.S. interests.  There is no political solution that serves the foreign invader. The paradox of political engagement is that the more you rule the weaker the native component of the government becomes, and the more likely it is to collapse when you leave, as the South Vietnamese government did in 1975, said Schell.