Afghanistan another Vietnam, says captive US soldier

An American trooper in Taliban captivity says that the United States has lost its grip on the Afghan war, urging the American people to help stop the 'nonsense.'

"I'm afraid to tell you that this war has slipped from our fingers and it's just going to be our next Vietnam unless the American people stand up and stop all this nonsense," said US soldier Bowe Robert Bergdahl in a video released by the militants on Friday, the AFP news agency reported. American media outlets, however, say the GI shown in the video is yet to be identified as Bowe.

The private first class went missing from his base in an eastern Afghanistan Taliban stronghold of Paktya near the volatile Pakistani border in June. The 23-year-old is the first US soldier to be captured by the Taliban over more than eight years of US-led counterinsurgency operations in Afghanistan.

The US defense officials established the soldier's identity in a similar video in July in which he likewise called for the troops "withdrawal" and addressed the American people, saying that "you have the power to make our government bring them home."

Meanwhile, Taliban spokesman Yousuf Ahmadi told AFP that the soldier "is not being tortured or tormented" by the militants. According to a CNN report, Bowe also insisted in the recent video that he was being treated humanely.

Ahmadi said the Taliban had released the second video "to show to the world that this is an invasion of Afghanistan, they (the foreign forces) are invaders, we want to show we are winning this war and the invaders will be either killed or captured like this."

The country is struggling with unprecedented violence despite the presence of around 113,000 US-led forces. The war-stricken population of Afghanistan has lost thousands of lives as a result of the war between the Taliban insurgents and various foreign forces.

While US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton insisted in July that "we are going to do everything we can to get him," Ahmadi says "We are ready to release him in exchange for the release of our prisoners but the Americans are not ready to release our prisoners in exchange for their soldier."