Afghanistan: A Tragic Mistake
Bob Herbert from The New York Times here lamenting the course of action this nation is being thrust into…
After going through an extended period of highly ritualized consultations and deliberations, the president has arrived at a decision that never was much in doubt, and that will prove to be a tragic mistake. It was also, for the president, the easier option.
It would have been much more difficult for Mr. Obama to look this troubled nation in the eye and explain why it is in our best interest to begin winding down the permanent state of warfare left to us by the Bush and Cheney regime. It would have taken real courage for the commander in chief to stop feeding our young troops into the relentless meat grinder of Afghanistan, to face up to the terrible toll the war is taking — on the troops themselves and in very insidious ways on the nation as a whole.
More soldiers committed suicide this year than in any year for which we have complete records. But the military is now able to meet its recruitment goals because the young men and women who are signing up can’t find jobs in civilian life. The United States is broken — school systems are deteriorating, the economy is in shambles, homelessness and poverty rates are expanding — yet we’re nation-building in Afghanistan, sending economically distressed young people over there by the tens of thousands at an annual cost of a million dollars each.
As a friend of mine responded in regards to the issues raised by Herbert….
One reason I voted for Obama was that he saw the Iraq fiasco for what it was. I was hoping that he would stand up to the M-I [military-industrial] complex. If that’s political suicide, so be it. Funny how when Ron Paul during the debates said the first thing he would do is withdraw our military from all over the world, not just the hot spots that no one reported it, even though he said it on national TV — was nowhere to be found in the newspapers the next day.
Folks decry the expansion of government into health care, environmental regulation and other areas — calling it socialism — yet fail to acknowledge that the M-I complex has hijacked our country, presumably, I suppose, because militarism is “patriotic,” but also because it comes down to whose ox is getting gored and whose bread is being buttered (Wow, my metaphors are out of control).
The Warfare State rolls on…
Read Herbert’s complete essay Here
Scott Ritter weighs in on the situation with his piece “McChrystal Doesn’t Get It — Does Obama?”
Thus the solution itself becomes the problem, thereby creating a never-ending circular conflict which has the United States expending more and more resources to resolve a situation that has nothing to do with the reality on the ground in Afghanistan, and everything to do with crafting a politically viable salve for what is in essence a massive self-inflicted wound. It is the proverbial dog chasing after its own tail, a frustrating experience made even more so by the fact that any massive commitment of troops brings with it the fatal attachment of national pride, individual hubris and, worst of all, the scourge of domestic American politics, so that by the time this dog bites its tail, it will be so blinded by artificialities that rather than recognize its mistake, it will instead proceed to consume itself. In the case of Afghanistan, our consumption will be measured in the lives of American servicemen and women, national treasure, national honor, and, of course the lives of countless Afghan dead and wounded.
