New and Improved Strategy: End the War
Comprehensive new strategy in Afghanistan will be unveiled by the President soon.
You know what this will mean? More troops, and the war will now be his. No longer Bush's mistake.
Eight years. How many more? Two? Ten?
I want out. I never wanted in, to be honest. Sure, the night of 9/11, I was mad. Angry. The missile strikes felt righteous, in some way. In a way that a impulsive teen yells at a parent to get something they want.
Doesn't work that way, though.
I'm tired. I'm tired of losing political battles. I'm tired of losing real battles, with real soldiers dying, being wounded, having their lives shattered. For an oil pipeline, because that's the only thing, aside from the opium trade, that is going on in Afghanistan. Let's at least be real about that.
"New" strategy. Just like a health care plan that promises to be all that, and ends up with abortion restrictions tagged on by some nightmare right wingnuts at the last minute. Not to mention, it really isn't universal, it really isn't going to help those who need it the most. New and improved- it never is. It's the same old shit, packaged with a new advertising campaign.
We sit with a majority in both houses, and nothing gets done. All this "working across the aisle" is utter bullshit. I don't remember Bush ever working with Democrats.
Ever.
We owe billions of dollars in short term debt- money we don't have, mind you- and yet we are still at war. Want to pay for health care, real health care? End the war. Want to pay the debt we owe without madly printing money that will lose value? End the war.
Want to bring thousands of moms, dads, brothers, sisters, home?
End the war.
The mess in that country was there a thousand years ago and will be there a thousand years from now.
If the President is really serious about new and improved? End the war.
You know what this will mean? More troops, and the war will now be his. No longer Bush's mistake.
Eight years. How many more? Two? Ten?
I want out. I never wanted in, to be honest. Sure, the night of 9/11, I was mad. Angry. The missile strikes felt righteous, in some way. In a way that a impulsive teen yells at a parent to get something they want.
Doesn't work that way, though.
I'm tired. I'm tired of losing political battles. I'm tired of losing real battles, with real soldiers dying, being wounded, having their lives shattered. For an oil pipeline, because that's the only thing, aside from the opium trade, that is going on in Afghanistan. Let's at least be real about that.
"New" strategy. Just like a health care plan that promises to be all that, and ends up with abortion restrictions tagged on by some nightmare right wingnuts at the last minute. Not to mention, it really isn't universal, it really isn't going to help those who need it the most. New and improved- it never is. It's the same old shit, packaged with a new advertising campaign.
We sit with a majority in both houses, and nothing gets done. All this "working across the aisle" is utter bullshit. I don't remember Bush ever working with Democrats.
Ever.
We owe billions of dollars in short term debt- money we don't have, mind you- and yet we are still at war. Want to pay for health care, real health care? End the war. Want to pay the debt we owe without madly printing money that will lose value? End the war.
Want to bring thousands of moms, dads, brothers, sisters, home?
End the war.
The mess in that country was there a thousand years ago and will be there a thousand years from now.
If the President is really serious about new and improved? End the war.
posted by Sara at 6:42 PM
3 Comments:
I'm reminded of Lyndon Johnson -- and his one term as President ....
He laid the groundwork for some real change with the Great Society, but in the end, it was Vietnam -- a war he inherited -- that did him in. (And that fractured the Democratic Party for many years to come.)
Afghanistan is not "winnable," (whatever that word means). The sooner he is honest about that fact, the less lives will be lost.
Afghanistan was and is all about islamic extremism. Al-qaida had a safe haven there, with the taleban-regime, where they could train any number of terrorist-wannabes, and do whatever else they wanted to do. That had to be stopped, it's as simple as that. Now it has to be stopped on the other side of the border, in the north-western provinces of Pakistan, and thankfully the Pakistanis seem to be awakening to that fact.
Taleban and al-qaida has to be beat - whatever it takes.
Everyone please read this article: Us official resigns over Afghan war.
Afghanistan as a "nation" is not like anything we know as Americans or as Europeans. It is actually a tribal nation without a concept of "Afghan citizenry." This article explains much better than I can why a military solution will not be a lasting solution in that type of atmosphere.
Also, to get a better idea of what life is like in Afghanistan and Pakistan, I highly recommend to everyone the book Three Cups of Tea
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