A Winnable War?(International Edition; LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)

Readers were inspired--and provoked-- by our Feb. 9 cover analyzing Afghanistan as "Obama's Vietnam." One complained that the Vietnam comparison evokes defeat, another that "Bush's Vietnam" would be more apt. A third urged Europe, target of the most recent terror attacks, to help in the fight.

To Achieve Victory in Afghanistan

Your Feb. 9 essays on Afghanistan were brilliant and seminal. In "Obama's Vietnam," John Barry and Evan Thomas masterfully examined the similarities and differences between Vietnam and Afghanistan, and Fareed Zakaria made some common-sense suggestions in "A Turnaround Strategy." But I object to the title "Obama's Vietnam." Not because I dispute the similarity of the two wars, but rather because it undeservedly and prematurely connotes and ascribes de-feat and failure to our new president. If we do not succeed in Afghanistan--and we must--it will not be Obama's Vietnam. It will be America's tragedy.

Maj. Dorian de Wind, USAF (Ret.)

Austin, Texas

Your cover story could have been headed "Obama's Vietnam: Is the Afghanistan-Pakistan Problem America's to Solve?" I was brought up in "Afghan-Pak country." These people see the United States as a bull--purposeless, enraged and lethal. The Afghan-Pak people must be allowed to define their destiny, even if it is at excruciating cultural, ethnic, economic and casualty costs. All the U.S. can do is support the region in a nonviolent manner, sidestepping the "terrorism trail."

Majid Ali