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TechnoratiA War of Absurdity
Every once in a while, a statistic just jumps out at you in a way that makes everything else you hear on a subject seem beside the point, if not downright absurd. That was my reaction to the recent statement of the president’s national security adviser, former Marine Gen. James Jones, concerning the size of the terrorist threat from Afghanistan:
“The al-Qaida presence is very diminished. The maximum estimate is less than 100 operating in the country, no bases, no ability to launch attacks on either us or our allies.”
Less than 100! And he is basing his conservative estimate on the best intelligence data available to our government. That means that al-Qaida, for all practical purposes, does not exist in Afghanistan—so why are we having a big debate about sending even more troops to fight an enemy that has relocated elsewhere? Because of the blind belief, in the minds of those like John McCain, determined to “win” in Afghanistan, that if we don’t escalate, al-Qaida will inevitably come back.
Why? It’s not like al-Qaida is an evil weed indigenous to Afghanistan and dependent on its climate and soil for survival. Its members were foreign imports in the first place, recruited by our CIA to fight the Soviets because there were evidently not enough locals to do the job. After all, U.S. officials first forged the alliance between the foreign fighters and the Afghan mujahedeen, who morphed into the Taliban, and we should not be surprised that that tenuous alliance ended. The Taliban and other insurgents are preoccupied with the future of Afghanistan, while the Arab fighters couldn’t care less and have moved on to more hospitable climes.
There is no indication that any of the contending forces in Afghanistan, including the Taliban, are interested in bringing al-Qaida back. On the contrary, all the available evidence indicates that the Arab fighters are unwelcome and that it is their isolation from their former patrons that has led to their demise.
As such, while one wishes that the Afghan people would put their houses in order, these are not, even after eight long years of occupation, our houses. Sure, there are all sorts of angry people in Afghanistan, eager to pick fights with each other and most of all any foreigners who seem to be threatening their way of life, but why should that any longer have anything to do with us?
Even in neighboring Pakistan, the remnants of al-Qaida are barely hanging on. As The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday, “Hunted by U.S. drones, beset by money problems and finding it tougher to lure young Arabs to the bleak mountains of Pakistan, al Qaeda is seeing its role shrink there and in Afghanistan, according to intelligence reports and Pakistan and U.S. officials. … For Arab youths who are al Qaeda’s primary recruits, ‘it’s not romantic to be cold and hungry and hiding,’ said a senior U.S. official in South Asia.”
It’s time to declare victory and begin to get out rather than descend deeper into an intractable civil war that we neither comprehend nor in the end will care much about. Terrorists of various stripes will still exist as they have throughout history, but the ones we are most concerned about have proved mighty capable of relocating to less hostile environments, including sunny San Diego and southern Florida, where the 9/11 hijackers had no trouble fitting in.
There is a continued need for effective international police work to thwart the efforts of a widely dispersed al-Qaida network, but putting resources into that effort does not satisfy the need of the military establishment for a conventional field of battle. That is the significance of Gen. Stanley McChrystal’s leaked report calling for a massive counterinsurgency campaign to make everything right about life in Afghanistan, down to the governance of the most forlorn village. The general’s report aims not at eliminating al-Qaida, which he concedes is barely existent in the country, but rather at creating an Afghan society that is more to his own liking.
It is a prescription, as the Russians and others before them learned, for war without end. That might satisfy the marketing needs of the defense industry and the career hopes of select military and political aspirants, but it has nothing to do with fighting terrorism. In the end, it would seem that some of our leaders need the Afghanistan battleground more than the terrorists do.
85 Comments so far
Show AllLet us noknow who we are dealing with;
Published: July 26, 2007 11:30 PM ET
SAN FRANCISCO Army medical examiners were suspicious about the close proximity of the three bullet holes in Pat Tillman's forehead and tried without success to get authorities to investigate whether the former NFL player's death amounted to a crime, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press.
"The medical evidence did not match up with the, with the scenario as described," a doctor who examined Tillman's body after he was killed on the battlefield in Afghanistan in 2004 told investigators.
The doctors - whose names were blacked out - said that the bullet holes were so close together that it appeared the Army Ranger was cut down by an M-16 fired from a mere 10 yards or so away.
Ultimately, the Pentagon did conduct a criminal investigation, and asked Tillman's comrades whether he was disliked by his men and whether they had any reason to believe he was deliberately killed. The Pentagon eventually ruled that Tillman's death at the hands of his comrades was a friendly-fire accident.
The medical examiners' suspicions were outlined in 2,300 pages of testimony released to the AP this week by the Defense Department in response to a Freedom of Information Act request.
Among other information contained in the documents:
-- In his last words moments before he was killed, Tillman snapped at a panicky comrade under fire to shut up and stop "sniveling."
-- Army attorneys sent each other congratulatory e-mails for keeping criminal investigators at bay as the Army conducted an internal friendly-fire investigation that resulted in administrative, or non-criminal, punishments.
-- Gen.Stanley McCrystal who kept the truth about Tillman's death from his family and the public told investigators some 70 times that he had a bad memory and couldn't recall details of his actions.
How would the Afghanis "get their house in order" when people keep blowing it up?
Their first task is to get the Americans out.
This new line of reasoning that's suddenly swept us lefties -- that the "real" enemy of America is no longer in Afghanistan, so we might as well leave them to their own Taliban-leaning civil war, totally glosses over the fact that the war was not primarily against Al Qaeda and the awful religious extremists who governed a country where many of them, and many of their bases, were harbored.
There was this little thing about a pipeline -- a gas pipeline to the west, the contract for with had just been lost by Unocal and was being awarded by the Taliban to an Argentine firm, despite the fact that the US had given the Taliban many billions in aid as "thanks" for killing the poppy crop (which was being grown by our now-allies Northern Alliance, which made the Taliban happy to kill it off, because that's how the Northern Alliance was getting the money that kept their guerilla war in business then, as now).
We're not just walking away from Afghanistan without that pipeline, and whether it's because the Taliban is really mad at us now, or because civil war will make construction impossible, we ain't getting that pipeline if we pull out. We know that, and Obama knows that, so we may as well get that back out in the open and talk about it, because if we just keep focusing on Al Queda being in Pakistan as if Obama has no excuse left to keep US troops in Afghanistan, we're going nowhere with this peace effort.
Back when the war was about to start, and even in the months before 9-11, we leftists were all over Unocal and that pipeline. It was the number one thing we were aware of and talking about. But now we've got what we think is this great trump card -- "Al Qaeda has moved! Stop the War!" -- so we're burying the lead. Big mistake. If someone has cancer in his stomach and his liver, you're not going to save his life by just removing his liver. So a movie came out that makes a case for Al Qaeda being gone, and it's such a good movie that now it's all we're talking about. But the patient always had stomach cancer -- the pipeline, and that's something the doctor (Obama) is thinking about, not just the liver.
That means we have to think about it too, and even though we can't solve this for Obama (seriously -- we're not going to help him solve the loss of the pipeline), we do have to popularize awareness of it again as we had in 2001, so Americans can decide whether Americans should die, and pay trillions more tax dollars, for a private corporation's gas pipeline. Statements by Stanley McChrystal and Jones make it clear that our government and military command is well aware of the end of Al Qaeda in Afghanistan, but still they press for more troops. So it must be something else. We have to put a lot more eggs of the peace movement into that something else.
fewer afghan troops -- off the table
indictments of Bush gang -- off the table
public option -- off the table
kyoto accords -- off the table.
Does Obama have anything left on his table?
Does he even have a table?
He should go hungry
The discussion should be broadened to include whether or not the 9-11 events were caused by terrorists in Afghanistan, or whether they were caused by US neo-cons and/or pro-Israeli agents. The World Trade Center buildings were designed to survive hits by large aircraft, and they look like they collapsed by demolition, especially Building 7. The Pentagon attack is also strange, in that wide wings and high tail did not cause any damage to the building, and then the wings, and tail, and engines, and all passenger baggage disappeared. Maybe there are explanations that account for these discrepancies, but the questions need to be asked in a formal investigation, and answer need to be given. Otherwise, there is no rationale at all for attacking and invading Afghanistan.
Just go away. The only widening of the discussion you're having that's worth a minute of our time is how to decide what island we can put you and the birthers on, and perhaps to speculate on how long it will be before glacial melting washes you all away.
Gosh, you mean we are spending all these billions of $ on a mere 100 or so of the toilet people! The MIC is like Dracula, it dies without blood and that is why if the MIC has no enemies it has to invent them to stay alive. Nice to hear the truth Mr. Scheer.
Superb article.
What I am realizing is that there is a high percentage of Americans who have O.C.D. (obsessive, compulsive disorder) about things military.
Whether it is military spending, military fighting, bullying others, etc. so much of America is obsessive and compulsive.
Americans need to "get a grip" and take a deep breath, be LOGICAL and see the absurdity of this.
National Security Adviser, James Jones, says "The maximum estimate is less than 100 operating in the country, no bases, no ability to launch attacks on either us or our allies."
"America, home of the brave" the saying goes. Oh, yeah??
We have, by far, the world's strongest military and we are afraid of the forces stated by James Jones?
Ridiculous.
Shame on the bullies and cowards, mostly Right Wingers, of America.
"The Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission has called, year after year, for a moral accounting. Its surveys of Afghan citizens consistently find that the people want lasting peace, and to attain it, they would prefer some sort of truth and reconciliation procedure, like the one that took place in South Africa, to cleanse the country and set it on an honest intellectual and moral footing."
http://www.wearewideawake.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1343&Itemid=222
The Universally accepted definition of INSANITY is to persist in the same behavior while expecting a different outcome.
On Oct. 1, 2009, in D.C. Richard Falk, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in the Occupied Territories who also has been challenging US policy regarding Iran for the last thirty years stated:
"The grounds for hope are in the history of the last 75 years that shows that military approaches do not succeed in successful political outcomes. America won every battle in Vietnam, but lost the war.
"The people running the government still subscribe to political realism; military power. Afghanistan proves militarism doesn't work, but we keep reinventing failure. We talk human rights but still engage in military interventions.
"Only progressive forces in civil society recognize this and understand the symbolic battlefield of morality and the legitimacy war. Shifting expectations from institutions and government onto the global battlefield of legitimacy will determine destiny...The traditional institutions are limp...That is the signal to Civil Society to act..."
http://www.wearewideawake.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1447&Itemid=225
oil... is too easy a soundbite... but it's at the root...
texas oil ended circa 1970... as did control of mideast producers...
prudhoe bay... north shore... mexico... got us through to 2000 or so...
any way you slice it... mideast... caspian basin... have the mother lode of oil and gas... regardless of the politics... the climes... or anything else...
then... even if every car and house ran on soybeans... or something invented next week that replicates itself like the common cold... even if our entire oil use was one barrel a year... no one else is going to go that route...
so... like it or not... cheap oil and gas is in our... and everyone else's future... at any cost...
cheyney called it the "big prize"... zbigneiw brshenski called it the grand chessboard... cheyney was headin' into iraq... 9/11 or no 9/11... israel... they were angling for that land in the late 1800's... were they that precisent about oil/gas reserves... ???
and 9/11... "w"... got his tax cuts... jiggered education funding... i.e.... redirect "guvm'nt control" a.k.a.... guvm'nt funding somewhere else... then went on vacation... like he said... he got the trifecta... attack... war... and recession... wet dreams for "w"...
the sad reality... he knew how to run with it right to a second term...
the rest is static noise... like it or not... cheap oil and gas is in our... and everyone else's future... at any cost...
By and large, Right Wingers are BULLIES.
They want something, they take it.
The hell with "fair and square". Instead, "might makes right".
These guys are rotten to the core, as low and cold as people come.
By comparison, decent people say, in the blink of an eye, "If a natural resource (oil or whatever) is within a nation's boundaries, then it BELONGS to that nation. Therefore that nation has full control on what happens to that resource, who gets it and at what price, etc."
Once again, we here in America have an abundance of bullies (mostly Right Wingers) who believe in taking away what belongs to someone else, by force.
(Also notice how these same Right Wingers talk cowardly by using words such as "afraid", "danger", etc.)
If only more Americans would place this most relevant bumper sticker on their vehicles:
Healthcare Not Warfare.
The real enemy is not those fearsome terrorists but rather the for-profit insurance companies that are preying upon the American people.
Erroll,
Yes, true.
But another enemy is responsible for the downfall of the U.S.
That enemy is those who knowingly lie about the facts.
For example, today I saw a commercial on T.V. that was against health insurance reform. The commercial would be very believable IF the viewer wasn't deeply knowledgeable about the facts.
(The readers of CommonDreams.org are among those who are knowledgeable.)
When I saw this T.V. commercial, my blood pressure went sky high, and I was even more angry with the Right Wingers.
However, a high percentage of Americans are fooled by these commercials.
Repeating.... it is these liars who are doing immense damage to America.
(And I do emphasize the word IMMENSE.)
Well, we can all breathe a sigh of relief that no one has mentioned Israel. After all, Scheer is a Zionist, but that is certainly not relevant. And, the architects of the massive invasion of the middle east, neo-cons in the persons of Wolfowitz, Libby, Perle, Kristol, et. al., are Zionists. But it would surely be incorrect to think that their Zionism had any part in creating the middle east conflict. After all, it was oil, or was it WMD, or democracy? I can't recall just now. Certainly Israel had nothing to do with it. And the conflict with Iran? Is that part of the problem too. Well, they are next on Israel's list, but, that doesn't affect the US machinations is the area, that would be silly. I am reassured that the original article, and 60 comments, didn't introduce a red herring like Israel.
or a red herring like heroin...virtually the entire world's supply...
The return of the CIA lock on the heroin trade was just a cherry on top.
Its all about the oil, has always been, always will be. Galenwainwright is on the mark. Iraq about the oil. Afghanistan about the oil. Strategic locations. We are starting to compete with China and India for oil. Mideast countries will be holding on to their own oil- we have to have a big presence there to guarantee oil.
Problem is, even so, there are less reserves than actually stated, and its all getting harder to suck out of the ground. Meaning higher prices. Meaning the end of economic growth. Meaning the collapse of the economic system as we know it. Meaning...well, you can take it from there.
"It’s time to declare victory and begin to get out " I agree. We could even skip the "victory" part. What does that mean?
Joe
Lets you and I call these goofballs up and tell them we have decided the meaning of victory is when Americans are in America and Afgans are in Afganistan and Iraqui are in Iraq and nobody is losing any more kids before their time.
Amen.
: )
Joe
Might means right, and is never wrong. Declare victory and leave. Victory, a hollow shell of meaningless bullshit.
Yesterday, the U.S. Senate approved the largest military budget bill in the history of the United States: $626 billion.
Next, the bill will be sent to a conference committee and then back to the House and Senate for final passage.
There remains a short window of opportunity to stop this wasteful military madness.
Tell your members of Congress to vote "NO" on the 2010 defense appropriations bill.
http://bit.ly/stopfundingwar
Afghanistan and Pakistan are not the Pentagon's sole targets in its war on terror, says Obama adding that the US will not hesitate to attack anywhere it deems a threat.
Will Obama attack anywhere his JudeoChristoCorporate Masters see a profit to be made??? America has become a Rogue Nation plundering the entire world.
Our NATO allies will sure be surprised when our UAV's target their homelands.
AFSC and other groups had the Eyes Wide Open display of 859 empty pairs of combat boots (for those soldiers who have died in Afganistan) on the Ellipse - notably covered by Army Times. Smallstep -but one in the right direction
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2009/10/ap_empty_boots_100309/
The war was absurd eight years ago and has been absurd ever since, nothing new. The entire chain of military industrial corporatism that led up to the war, sustains the war, and which will promote further war, is absurd.
A vengeful, war mongering population that put out their flags and cheered at the exploding footage on CNN was absurd. That same population, now complacent, complicit, impotent, and psychically shackled is absurd.
Outside of us being in Afghanistan as an energy pipeline protection force, I do see the purpose of our being there. 8 years ago it was to find Osama bin laden, still no luck, and he is probably in Pakistan and the guys who rammed the planes into the WTC trained in Dresden ,Germany as well as the USA. Then there is the argument that we got to get them there or else they'll come here and create havoc. But people can prepare to attack the US from anywhere in the world-- Af/Pak, Dresden, New York or ???.
What was needed in Afghanistan was police/spy work; not invasion. Our military overthrew the Taliban-- the mainly Pushtuns and the largest minority (43%)in the country and put the smaller minority Tajiks in power. Guess what? The uproar continues .
Solution-get out now as our being there only causes more friction and let the Pushtons and the Tajiks work it out.
Unless, of course, we're there as a energy pipeline protection force.
The reason there hasn't been another 9/11 style attack in the past 8 years is there has been no *NEED* for one.
Everything that the neo-con wet dream team PNAC wanted has been granted.
"But people can prepare to attack the US from anywhere in the world-- Af/Pak, Dresden, New York or ???."
Or Montana or Michigan. Where was Tim Mcveigh from? Maybe we should invade that place and declare a "War on Redneckism".
Then we'd have to declare a "War on pointyheadism".....where would it end?(lol)
Exactly newbie. When an individual or a few people attack and kill civilians, it is a CRIME and should be treated that way - investigation, charges, fair trial, punishment for the guilty. The Oklahoma City bombing is a perfect example.
There are very few al qaida, and nobody knows exactly where they are at any time. As for bin Laden, if he exists, it's like Where's Waldo. It is a matter for intelligence, not regiments. Large numbers of troops do no good when you don't know who the hell you are looking for or what you are doing.
The Taliban are farmers who want life to be a certain old patriarchal biblical style way in their villages. They are poor, cannot read and write and are not coming here. They are none of our business and we certainly don't help anyone by going there and killing them.
The only NATION now engaged in invasions and traditional war is US.
WARS Я US.
(By the way, I am so so sick of being sick about my country. When will I feel comfortable and even proud about how we conduct ourselves. Never, I fear.)
Joe
Hard to have an investigation when the evidence is shipped to China to be re-smelted into consumer crap for Wal-mart...
Joe....do you mean that the occupation of Tibet is OK because it is a fait accompli? That its OK to kill your own people if you remain within the boundries of your own country like Burma (no I won't use the military junta's name for it)? Or that its OK for the Sudanese to incur into Darfur killing everything in sight, because its not a traditional war?
I know you don't mean that, but sometimes we get so wrapped up in looking at ourselves we forget there is far worse in the world. You will feel a lot more comfortable when we get out of both those countries and we WILL get out. The only real question left is how many bodies will be on the ground, ours and others before this President (or the next) pulls the plug.
The Taliban are no different than any other warlord group or military band of thugs, but the Afganistan people are exactly what you describe. And even the Taliban are NOT coming here. And we indeed have no business there.
henry8 - you raise some complicated issues.
And yes, I overstated. There are horrible smaller incursions within countries and between neighboring countries, as there have been forever. As citizens of the globe, humans and nature everywhere are our concern.
But nobody is invading US, and nothing compares with the scale, global presence and aggression of our military.
Joe
"But nobody is invading US, and nothing compares with the scale, global presence and aggression of our military."
TRUE. And we sure as heck shouldn't be invading anyone either. Bush and Cheney disgraced our country by doing this and apparently Obama wants to continue it.
But the Chinese are working hard to surpass us and with a two million man army on the ground if I was India or in Southeast asia I'd be nervous. If I were in the Urals I'd really be nervous. These guys don't give a flip for what the world "thinks" of them.
Lets work hard on reducing our military presence in the world....we don't need it. Lets get out of Europe. Our economic problems present the best opportunity in decades to achieve those reductions.
Your always measured and thoughtful responses point the way.
Our wars have nothing to do with terrorism and more to do with profit for our ruling oligarchs. That's the basic fallacy in our 'foreign policy'. Look closely at those who terrorize. Oh my God, terrorists are us!
"We have met the enemy, and he is us." Pogo
What does it say about America's national priorities when fully 57% of the USA budget is committed to systems of VIOLENCE, AGGRESSION, and MILITARY MIGHT?
www.afsc.org
Osama bin Laden laughs and laughs and laughs.
He probably killed himself because it's all just too easy.
Since his brother Salem Bin Laden was GWB's financial partner in GWB's Abusto Oil (later Harkin Energy) and his family run business the "Bin Laden Brothers Contracting for Industry" (Now Bin Ladin Group) had hundreds of transactions with Poppy Bush's Carlyle Group and was given the World Bank contract to rebuild Lebanon after GWB let Israel knock it down, I'm sure he's laughing his ass off poolside at the Bush Crime Family Compound.
TJ
"All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent." - Thomas Jefferson
"That means that al-Qaida, for all practical purposes, does not exist in Afghanistan—so why are we having a big debate about sending even more troops to fight an enemy that has relocated elsewhere?"
Ever heard of war profiteering? That's why. Illegal and inhuman wars are what moves the US and it has for at least 100 years. Next question.
Actually, the invasion of Afganistan was planned and ready to go before 9/11...it was originally intended as a means to force through the Unocal gas pipeline meant to bypass the Russians.
That Karzi is a former head of Unocal is no surprise.
"The only means of strengthening one's intellect is to make up one's mind about nothing, to let the mind be a thoroughfare for all thoughts." - John Keats
mujeriego,
Can you please provide reference to the assertion that Karzi is a former head of Unocal?
Unlike Henry8, I don't just take strangers' unsupported assertions as gospel because they're consistent with my preconceptions, or what I want to hear. I scoured the interweb, and the only reference to this I can find is a (unreferenced) Dec. '01 article in Le Monde that states:
"Après Kaboul et l'Inde ou il a étudié le droit, il a parfait sa formation aux Etats-Unis ou il fut un moment consultant de l'enterprise pétrolière américaine Unocal, quand celle-ci étudiant la construction d'un oléduc en Afghanistan."
Translated: "After Kabul and India where he had studied law, he completed his training in the United States where he was briefly (literally: "for a moment") a consultant for the American petroleum business Unocal, when it was studying the construction of a pipeline in Afghanistan."
As weak as this evidence is, it says nothing of him being the Head of Unocal. If he were the Head of such an organization, it would be well documented.
"That Karzi is a former head of Unocal is no surprise."
Its a surprise to me because I didn't know that....thanks!
To paraphrase Monty Python:
"Let us bow our heads and pray for the brave souls who gave their lives to keep Afganistan Amercian"
"The only means of strengthening one's intellect is to make up one's mind about nothing, to let the mind be a thoroughfare for all thoughts." - John Keats
A War of Absurdity? It took a statistic for you to see that? Come on Scheer.
The very idea of attacking al-Qaida as if it were a country is absurd. The idea that Afganistan paid for, or was involved in 9/11 is absurd. Same for Iraq.
Its been proved well enough that the best way to handle al-Qaida is using standard police methods and cooperation between police of various countries. The use of intelligence agancies and covert operations.
If you were going to attack a country for 9/11 it would have been Saudi Arabia, a country that finances terroism and whose nationals were involved. But the idea of attacking anyone without REAL proof is the absurdity here.
We will soon know about this President. He has to escalate or withdraw, there is no third choice, no fence straddling option here.
Lets hope he does the honest thing and withdraws.
henry8 - as we say here in Brooklyn, Om down wichyu on this one.
Joe
Exactly right about Saudi Arabia. And it shows what our real rulers think of themselves: princes who can hop nob with 'Arabian Royalty'. If the United States government is what it maintains it is, we would have been separated from the Arab fascists years ago.
Thanks! We are in total agreement here.
"He has to escalate or withdraw, there is no third choice, no fence straddling option here.
Lets hope he does the honest thing and withdraws."
It's the same choice JFK had in Vietnam. We all know the decision there. It is highly unlikely (probably a 0% chance) that Obama will withdraw from Afghanistan. Look at the track record. The "honest thing" regarding health care would be to vigorously push for single payer. The "honest thing" regarding banks would have been to say no to the trillions in bailout money. The "honest thing" regarding gay rights would be to strongly back gay marriage rights. The "honest thing" would be a repudiation of the Patriot Act. The "honest thing" would be revision of FISA to end warrantless wiretaps. The "honest thing" would be an end to the (LMFAO) "War on Drugs". The "honest thing" would be massive cuts to the military budget and the closing of foreign bases. In all these instances I don't foresee Obama doing the "honest thing".
There are those who think JFK was ready to pull out of Vietnam. That's why his little trip to Texas was unfortunate. Talk about going into enemy hands! Obama is more of a survivor. He's also a member in good standing of the ruling elite. I suppose that means we have made progress. A wealthy black man can get away with murder in the United States (O.J. Simpson) and now a well heeled black man can be president.
All true - and bad as Obama is, I don't think he even has the option of withdrawing. The military runs this country's foreign policy. They'll soon run our domestic policy too, in tandem with the banks.
Yes, it seems that General Petraeus is running the whole show in the US these days and that McChristal, Mullen, etc. are his ministers of state warfare in the AfPak region. Perhaps a new title something like General President or President in General will soon be introduced, as was the title Caesar was in Rome.
Unfortunately, I agree with you. I don't believe he has the guts to do it. It takes a leader to lead and I have seen no demonstrable trace of leadership so far.
As to your "honest" comments, on the money, except for Gay marriage and off on that only because it is a State consideration that is not in his purview, though he could stand up for it and advocate it, so on second thought, you are 100% correct.
As a matter of fact I believe its time to start asking exactly what we aere doing with bases in Germany, Italy, etc at this point. My guess is we need about 10 for our own interests.
(it wasn't JFK though that escalated Viet Nam, it was Johnston) Eisenhower and Kennedy just got us started.
"Every once in a while, a statistic just jumps out at you in a way that makes everything else you hear on a subject seem beside the point, if not downright absurd."
One such statistic is that the US spends more on military weaponry than the rest of the world combined. After absorbing this disturbing statistic, one should not be surprised on learning of any aggressive, and absurd, foreign policy positions of the US.
All war is absurd.
Ok, simplistic in a verbal sense, but until we come to this conclusion in our hearts, the mind will always find a way to rationalize one 'last' reason to justify slaughter.
The only way 'we're' going to bring 'our' soldiers home is by assuring the death profiteers of continued obscene profits.
So let's launch a 'Cash for Cache' program - in this case, weapons cache. The taxpayers will subsidize whatever profits are lost as a result of 'peace,' (first, via repair, replacement, and re-supply, then we'll just keep buying their toys and storing them in the desert,) in exchange for pulling out of every country where we should be sticking our nose in the first place.
IOW, in the same way 'we' pay farmers not to grow crops on their land, 'we'll' pay death profiteers to stop starting fake wars and killing millions of innocents.
Good idea frank 1569! We could also give them rewards for converting their plants to peacetime uses and keeping their workers employed.
I know we are dreaming - but we have to.
Joe
Sioux Rose
FRANK: I have to hand it to you, you're a truly original thinker! I like the idea, and I'd say send it to Kucinich. The second part should include a recycle program whereby the big defense contractors get to buy back their own munitions at 90% their original cost. Hey, they can market them to up and coming third world nations. On a planet as heavily armed as this one, there's already way more than enough to go around.
Unrelated to your post, Scheer really seems to buy the official PR, all that rah rah rah about who's going to win, what strategy is required, that it's about bringing democracy abroad, or working to get rid of "our enemies" over yonder, etc. I wonder if he buys all that nonsense, or if by pretending it, he ensures his own job as a newspaper columnist?
Just like corrupt businesses have ONE set of books that they send to the IRS and their accountant, and a second set that tells the truer, fuller story; the stated reasons that US troops are in Afghanistan depart substantially from the ACTUAL ones. Does he get that distinction at all? Because by playing into intellectual games based on strategems, he essentially lends cover to the stated artificial basis for the conflict. Most of us in the forum GET that it's about securing the gas/oil access & pipelines, and using that dominance to offset the rising power of Russia and China and their industrial bases.
Unbelievable! These so called journalists need a career change! To continue to advocate that 9/11 was the action of some Arab cave dwellers is beyond pure absurdity and is well settled into the mental region of delusion and insanity! Most Americans are so deluded about their government and their culture, mindless products and victims of mass media propaganda, mind control and psychological warfare. Future generations will shudder in awe and disbelief at the spectacle of sheer ignorance, stupidity and gullibility that has characterized 20th century America.
This article gets halfway to the correct path to peace. It is admitted that our absurd war is against al-Qaeda (and the Taliban), rather than being some 'war in Afghanistan'.
But...
Don't forget to notice that troops will be left in Iraq to prevent future terrorism by 'al-Qaeda in Iraq' (evidently an 'al-Qaeda affiliate').
Once again, Progressives are thinking regionally and not globally.
The author suggests that we end our war against al-Qaeda in Afghanistan, while ignoring military efforts against al-Qaeda in Iraq. So, we're going to ask the military to stop fighting half a war?
It's all one big and DAFT global war, folks. We have to end it everywhere.
To do that, the insanity of Public Law 107-40 (2001 AUMF) must be brought into the light of day.
So there is basically no Al Qaeda presence in Afghanistan, a fact many of us nobodies have known for months. The generals are finally admitting it, but if you read the other story here today, Obama isn't reducing our troop levels there and is uncertain how to proceed, whether to send more and how many, to answer McChrystal's requests.
So we're essentially staying in AfPak, killing randomly with drones and whatever, because it's just what we do. We can't simply STOP doing what we do best! Prattle about terrorism to the media, make threatening remarks in speeches backed up with vacuous reassurances of protecting Americans, and be sure to glorify the troops ceaselessly, no matter how they behave, how many civilians they slaughter, just keep saying they're heroic, and you'll get all the funding you want, to keep the perpetual war machine humming along like a locked and loaded Hummer roaring down a busy Arab street.
We can't stop THAT. It's all we have to offer the world. It's the American brand, for Chrissake! Just contrive new excuses every month or so for staying there forfuckingever. Corporate media will regurgitate every word, most Americans will pay two seconds worth of attention and agree that the Mission is imperative, and John McCain will still be thought of as a war hero.
Good article , but one important correction.
When the USA invaded there was no Civil War. The Taliban had won.
This USA destruction of the Pax Talibania, after decades of warfare in Afghanistan, compounds the evilness of the USA invasion and occupation.
The Law and Order imposed by the Taliban after they subdued their opponents was the greatest asset of the Taliban.
Yes the law and order did have negative fundamentalist aspects but this paled in comparison to the wholesale rape and murder of the lawless, backed now by the USA,Northern Alliance.
At this point diplomacy and bribery was the wisest means to create an Afghanistan with greater civil rights, not reconstituting Civil War as the USA is doing now.
The USA is training and arming the Tajiks ( major portion of Northern Alliance) to subdue the long governing Pastuns.
The Afghan army training program is to create a USA puppet Tajik force strong enough to subdue the Pashtuns or possibly just strong enough to ensure eternal Civil War.
"the belly flop king"
LOL
Good righteous article by Scheer.
But that is besides the point.
I see the generals making the TV rounds again and the pitch targeting minority and poor kids to sign up is on the rise.
Like all else--what do we have to do with it? It seems that besides providing cannon fodder and footing the bill, we are of no consequence.
What Galenwainwright said. Couldn't be stated more clearly.
The BBC documentary "The Power of Nightmares" revealed several years ago that "Al Qaida" was always a convenient fiction. It has never really existed.
It's imaginary. That's what makes it so powerful.
this endless dreary spinning of the war for gas and oil really displays how deluded and complicit the media is in the us or as it should be called psyopville
these "journalists" don't do much in the way of research - they react to other spinning writers who are spinning the writing of other spinners etc and so on
its like the gossip at the tuesday night bingo
eric margolis - who actually spent quite some time with osama bin laden running around the mountains of afghanistan has always maintained the al queda really doesn't even exist and that bin laden never had more than 100-200 "fighters" at any time
for sure the afghanis who are freedom fighting the us out of their country do not think of themselves as al queda - or taliban for that matter
taliban was created by the cia
the rest is just bullshit
there's a lot of that going around
so at the end of the day we see the drug addicted, child raping, roid raged christian army of the imperial united states - along with their depleted urnanium weapons and drones who are best at wiping out wedding parties - cannot handle 100 - 200 irregulars whose most sophisticated weapon is the pick up truck they drive around in
leading them all ove the cliff is the nwo shill obama - fake lefty and i am starting to think (with bush only 8 months gone) the worst president we ever had
the belly flop king - obama has been a mess fom day one
a liar, a hyppocrite and a buffoon who's only talent lies in reading teleprompters
he stabbed us in the back on this foolish war, he slit our throats on the health care issue and he shoved the health care mess up our behinds all with that same goofy smile that is also quickly starting to irritate the shit out of me
he was so upset over the bum's rush he got at the olympic playoff this week in copenhagen he had to invite himself to the whitehouse for a beer
"he was so upset over the bum's rush he got at the olympic playoff this week in copenhagen he had to invite himself to the whitehouse for a beer"
It'll be interesting to see if the President can see fit to make his way back to Copenhagen for the upcoming climate conference. Let's see what's a higher priority, a two week sporting event/party for rich folks or the survival of human life on earth.
no he won't go - its got nothing to do with the nwo so kissinger won't let him go
sounds like another invite for another beer
lebeau-
"...the drug addicted, child raping, roid raged christian army of the imperial united states..."
This line made me shudder to think what it'll look like when these guys are told to go home, the war is over. Maybe we are "fighting them over there so we won't have to fight them over here" --- except the 'them' is 'we' (in the form of Xe)!
Monsters, indeed! (Mary Shelley, you were a genius.)
Yep, you've distilled it down to the naked truth Old Peculiar,
Just like Vietnam, we are fighting ourselves to keep Big Oil and "Big D" in business. According to Jon Krakauer's Bestselling new book about the murder of NFL Pat Tillman, "Where Men Win Glory", Forty percent of all Iraq deployed US force casualties are "friendly fire". Forty Percent! (26 percent in Afghanistan, he says.)
If you say that out-loud, however, you become one of these casualties, just ask the Tillman family. Your unit gets ordered to spilt up and then meet up later in the dark with guns blazing.
Why are we paying for this mess? Let's just park all our cars and quit at the same time. Now we don't need oil do we?
TJ
"All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent." - Thomas Jefferson
thomasjefferson says:
Let's just park all our cars and quit at the same time.
Yes! On Global Start Date: September 22, 2012...precisely! All together, now...
agrarian, acoustic life...
old: the reality is the war will never end for those boys we sent into that country
when ken burns did his myopic on ww2 - 60 years after the fact - the war was still real to all those boys - old men at that time their lives burdened by what they did and what they saw
war is a racket for the rich to make money - end of story
it is a life view for psychopaths - now run by chickenhawks like bush and cheney and obama - fools and clowns who never had the guts to serve themselves but don't mind our sons and daughters to die for oil and the profit margin
we need to bring the troops home, stand them down and quit pissing on about security
Including the lipstick-up artist at the Casa Blanca buck stop, bully pulpitting as the Buffalo Soldier-in-chief! Neocolonial MANIFEST INSANITY, indeed!!
“That might satisfy the marketing needs of the defense industry.” “It is the economy stupid.” Who needs a couple hundred thousand soldiers joining the ranks of the unemployed? Who needs the job layoffs if we stop shoving missiles down peasant’s throats? The defense stimulus is working better than the Obama stimulus. It is no longer about winning wars it is about surviving in the US. How absurd is that?
Al-Qaida has done what it's CIA designers planned it to do:
Draw the US into a continual low level brushfire conflict that requires the expenditure of billions of dollars worth of men and materiel in an overseas setting in an effort to hunt down that which does not really exist, all to prop up a massively unnecessary and bloated military, expend outdated ammunition inventories, the destruction of large armored vehicles and the requisite R&D to build near-autonomous UAVs and 'non-lethal' crowd control weapons that have immediate use in a domestic setting.
The plan to manipulate the public mood into one of frantic and fanatical patriotism that would distract them and make them more susceptible to accepting an increasingly Fascist government at home while the ruling oligarchy looted what was left of the national economy which was based on a single resource that had been revealed to be running out.
Once you wrap your head around that, all the events of the last ten years become very easy to understand.
Even though what you post is common knowledge to all, except the brain washed and brain dead, it is still nice to read an intelligently written post.
Sioux Rose
GALENW: Thank you for your clear, crisp view from outside the US "prison" walls. I, too, see all that you see, and thank you for stating this fine analysis with wisdom and succinctness. It seems at times too dark to take in, and yet the facts speak ominously for themselves.
Gen.Stanley McCrystal: Leading lobbyist for the Military Industrial Complex (Hello, Ike!).
Galenwainwright:
Right on target! Excellent post!
Exactly galen. Also the deliberate mixing up of the local zealots of the Taliban with al qaeda increases a sense of imbalance. A mess of myth and misinformation.
Joe
Well said, Galenwainwright!
Robert Scheer, you are a fossil-fuel propaganda troll. Your article purports to delve into the war in Afghanistan, yet you do not mention "pipeline routes" or "natural gas" anywhere.
http://freepublictransit.org
Dude! Scheer doesn't mention the oil angle and he's necessarily a "fossil-fuel propaganda troll"? WTF!? If he were to write about the role of oil in all of this, the article wouldn't be concise, succinct, and focused on a single argument.
Hurling baseless accusations at the one of the few journalists actually practicing journalism (as opposed to the parrots in the MSM) doesn't help anything.
I suggest you find more constructive ways of focusing your energy.
odoco
You've stated the case exactly. Thank you.
What a cogent, accurate summary. Bravo!!