Vietnam and Afghanistan Again

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/06/weekinreview/06shane.html?hpw
While growing up and taking History classes, war is something people are used to learning and hearing about, but never experiencing. However, the United States has currently been in war with Afghanistan for eight years. President Obama gave a speech saying that we were leaving Iraq and sending 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan as quickly as possible so we can end the war as soon as possible. When we began this war we were fighting to contain terrorism and help secure other nations of the world. The U.S. has been there for eight years now and not much has changed. The government pushes that we support our troops and what we are fighting for, but the American people are seeing no results.
During the Vietnam War, America was fighting to help contain and control communism from spreading. At that time, communism was the big threat to the world and our government felt it was right for us to go over there and fight to protect the world. The government would persuade people to support the troops that were fighting for the U.S. and try to convince people that we were fighting for a good reason. The Vietnam War also lasted eight years and the government kept telling us that we were going to bring our troops home and end the war, but they were sent back or sent to different locations during those eight years. Many people feel that we are fighting in Afghanistan for the same reasons we were fighting in Vietnam, to try to control a group of people that in the end cannot be controlled. The Vietnam War lasted eight years and we have now entered our eighth year of war with Afghanistan, and the American people did not and have not seen any results. They were fighting to end communism then and now we are fighting to end terrorism, neither will ever fully end nor cease to exist and in the end, will cost large amounts of money and angry, American people.