From NewsMax.com:

William R. Polk, an author, Middle East expert, and relative of America’s 11th president, James K. Polk, warns that America is ensnared in Afghanistan and ought to get out immediately.

The former foreign policy adviser for Dennis Kucinich’s presidential campaign tells Newsmax “we don’t have any plan about what we should be doing.”

Polk also opposed the war in Iraq, and is a vivid example of the push back President Obama is getting from his own party, as he tries to craft a successful strategy for Afghanistan.

Polk recently released “Understanding Iran: Everything You Need to Know, From Persia to the Islamic Republic, From Cyrus to Ahmadinejad.” He spoke with Newsmax.TV’s Ashley Martella.

The author says he sees striking parallels between Afghanistan and Vietnam.

“The major thing is that we were dealing in Vietnam with a government that was basically not liked by its people, corrupt, and didn’t control much of the territory,” he tells Newsmax. “It’s the same situation we face now in Afghanistan. There are warlords that control the north, the Taliban control the south.

“The reach of the government is more or less restricted to downtown Kabul. Even in downtown Kabul, representatives of the Taliban can meet with foreign correspondents with complete impunity. So the government is very little for us to rely on,” he says.

Part of the problem in Afghanistan, he tells Newsmax, is simple math. Counterinsurgency theory requires 25 soldiers per thousand people, he says. So controlling Afghanistan would actually require between 600,000 and 1.3 million troops, he says.

Polk says America’s experience in Afghanistan also closely parallels that of the former Soviet Union, which endured a humiliating defeat there. Like the Soviet Union, he says, the U.S. military is only able to partially control Afghanistan. Another parallel: Once troops leave an area, warlords and the Taliban soon move in to take control.

According to Polk, the notion that a surge in Afghanistan could duplicate U.S. success in Iraq is flawed. The surge in Iraq really didn’t work as advertised, he says.

“What happened in Iraq is we essentially hired a large group of people who were potentially supporters of the dissidents — the so-called Sunni revival movement,” he told Newsmax. “As soon as we stopped paying them, they stopped being our friends.”

The situation in Iraq, Polk claims, “is much more stable in our minds than it is in the minds of anyone in Iraq.”

Like many Democrats, Polk would like to see Obama pull out of both Iraq and Afghanistan immediately.

Polk adds that he’s not worried about al-Qaida returning to Afghanistan, if it’s overrun by the Taliban. Terrorists can operate anywhere, he says, and Afghanistan is not a desirable location compared to others.

Polk maintains that there is a growing groundswell of opposition to the war. He says “quite a lot of military people” now agree with his perspective.

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From CNSNews.com:

116 U.S. Troops Died in Afghanistan While Obama Pondered Reinforcements

One hundred and sixteen U.S. troops died in Afghanistan between August 30 when Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the U.S. commander in that country, first reported that reinforcements were needed, and today, when President Barack Obama is set to announce that he will send 34,000 additional troops to Afghanistan.

There were 58 U.S. casualties in Afghanistan in October alone, making that the deadliest month of the eight-year-long U.S. war. There were also 37 U.S. casualties in Afghanistan in September, making September the third deadliest month of the war. In November, the U.S. casualties in Afghanistan dropped to 17.

On Aug. 30, Gen. McChrystal submitted a 66-page assessment of the war in Afghanistan to Defense Secretary Robert Gates. The assessment said that without additional resources the war would “likely result in failure.”

“However, without a new strategy, the mission should not be resourced,” wrote Gen. McChrystal.

“Failure to gain the initiative and reverse insurgent momentum in the near-term (next 12 months)–while Afghan security capacity matures–risks an outcome where defeating the insurgency is no longer possible,” the general wrote.

President Obama sent McChrystal to Afghanistan to be the top U.S. commander there in June after Defense Secretary Robert Gates had fired the previous commander, Gen. David McKiernan, in May.

President Obama is scheduled to announce that he is sending additional forces to Afghanistan and to reveal a new war strategy in a primetime address to be delivered today from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.

The period since Gen. McChrystal submitted his assessment that additional troops were needed has included the second deadliest thee-month period of the war. In September through November, there were 112 U.S. casualties in Afghanistan (including 37 in September, 58 in October and 17 in November). Together with 4 casualties that occurred on August 31, these account for the 116 total U.S. casualties that have occurred in Afghanistan since the general’s assessment.

The deadliest three-month period of the war was June through August of this year, when there were 119 U.S. casualties. These included 24 in June, 44 in July, and 51 in August.

So far this year, there have been 291 U.S. casualties in Afghanistan, making 2009 the deadliest year of the war. Prior to this year, the deadliest single month of the war in Afghanistan was June 2008, when 28 U.S. troops were killed.

The casualty information reported here comes from a CNSNews.com data base of all U.S. casualties in Operation Enduring Freedom. The casualty numbers are based on U.S. Defense Department casualty reports. The database also includes additional information about the circumstances of U.S. casualties in Afghanistan that is derived from public information released by the U.S. Defense Department and also from published news reports.

The casualty numbers reported here include only those that took place within Afghanistan itself and exclude casualties involving troops supporting Operation Enduring Freedom outside of Afghanistan.

Operation Enduring Freedom is comprised of the operations in Afghanistan along with other anti-terrorists actions in other countries as well as training assistance to foreign militaries that are fighting terrorism.

In June 2007, at a presidential debate in New Hampshire, then-candidate Obama pledge to focus on what he called “the critical battle that we have in Afghanistan.”

“One of the things that I think is critical, as the next president, is to make absolutely certain that we not only phase out the Iraq war, but we also focus on the critical battle that we have in Afghanistan and root out al Qaeda,” he said.

Obama said at the time that the war in Iraq “is an enormous distraction from the battle that does have to be waged in Afghanistan.”

Related posts:

1. A Majority of U.S. Combat Casualties in Nine-Year-Long Afghanistan War Have Occurred in Less Than Year-and-a-Half of Obama Presidency
2. ‘Yemen will be Obama’s Afghanistan’ warns Al Qaeda cleric
3. Obama’s July 2011 Draw-Down Date for Afghanistan Sends Mixed Messages, Former Afghan Presidential Candidate Says
4. The Afghanistan Surge is Working; Now We Need Pakistan’s Full Effort
5. Petraeus: Military Didn’t Recommend Obama’s July 2011 Date for Beginning Withdrawal from Afghanistan
6. The United States must not abandon Iraq
7. Safety of US soldiers is secondary under Obama administration
8. Obama: US to Leave Iraq ‘As Promised, On Schedule’
9. Barack Obama is running out of Iraq for all the wrong reasons
10. McChrystal Debacle Reveals Growing Rift Between Military and Obama