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TechnoratiAfghanistan: This War Won't Work
The recent Taliban attacks on Kabul provide another wake-up call about why this war in Afghanistan simply isn't going to work. It won't bring security to Afghans. It won't turn Afghanistan into a democracy. And it won't make us safer.
In fact, the war killed more people in Afghanistan last year than the year before-40 percent more civilians, according to the United Nations. And the body count this year is already shaping up to be higher than last year. That goes for U.S. troops too.
And President Obama's escalation, the 30,000 new troops he just announced he's sending to Afghanistan? That's not helping either. The Taliban have mostly stayed in the countryside, based in the small villages where almost 80 percent of Afghans live. But now, after Obama announced that the additional troops would be deployed in Afghanistan's "population centers," meaning the cities, guess where the Taliban headed for their most recent assault?
The same thing happens when U.S. troops go after Taliban or al-Qaeda targets-they may or may not kill the "right" person, but they consistently do kill a whole bunch of people guilty only of being in the very wrong place at the very wrong time. The "wrong" people get killed.
And what happens then? The grieving and outraged family, friends, and tribe members of those "wrong" people get angry. Very angry. They start to hate those who killed their family members-us-even if they never did before. And some of them turn to violence when they never would have before. This isn't new-military and political leaders acknowledge that we're creating more terrorists than we're killing. And still the policymakers aren't hearing it.
So it doesn't make us safer. And here at home we have another problem too. Alongside the horrifying human cost-young soldiers killed, others coming home with horrifying life-shattering injuries, others returning to face traumatic brain injury and PTSD-we have to pay the financial cost for this war.
The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have already cost us $950 billion. Yes, BILLION. That's not counting the $137 billion Congress appropriated for spending between now and September. And that also doesn't count the cost of those 30,000 new troops going to Afghanistan, which will cost roughly $30 billion more just for their first year.
Altogether, that means by the end of this year we will have spent about $1.08 trillion. Yes, TRILLION-a number so big it's practically incomprehensible.
What else could we do with that money? Well, just the cost of the current escalation could provide about six million people with health care. Or generate 600,000 well-paid green jobs.
Which is more likely to make us safer? Opposition to the U.S. war in Afghanistan, which peaked at almost 60 percent just a month or so ago, has dropped after Obama's escalation speech at West Point. We've got a lot of work to do to make sure his administration knows this war won't make us safer, and it just costs too much-too many lives and too much money. Are you listening, President Obama?
34 Comments so far
Show AllAfghan patriots and freedom fighters will not discontinue killing the myrmidons of a brutal occupation. As good Americans would, they'll defend their land forever.
support the EMPIRE send your neighbors kids
The military industrial complex needs work!!
Obama may or may not be listening, but it's for sure he's not listening to the people but he is listening to the people around him, you know, the old Washington hands like Rahm Emmanuel that he brought on board to run the Administration, the same old people who have been doing the same old wrong stuff for decades, who got us into this mess, who are concerned only with politics and not with the messy reality of the results of their political games, to wit, lots of dead people littering the earth from Palestine to Pakistan.
Power makes the powerful stupid.
Power makes the powerful wealthier and there is no amount of wealth that will satisfy their quest for more power.
Stephen Decatur once said, "My country, may she always be right in her intercourse with other nations, but my country right or wrong."
The America most of my generation envisioned was going to be as right as we could get it--and positively promote a peaceful unity, starting with our own families and working out to the whole world--it's time to put the nuke toys away for good--what will it take for men to see their plight oh Lord?
It is difficult to imagine what a military victory would look like? Probably when the enemy gives up and goes home. But the Taliban are home. It is us who will be leaving. And what is NATO doing there? Doesn't the "A" in NATO stand for "Atlantic". A look at a map shows that Afghanistan is a landlocked nation in the middle of Asia, about as far from Atlantic as it is possible to get. The essay mentions that a trillion dollars is a lot of money. Because trillion rhymes with million and billion, and because you get to a trillion by adding three zeros to a billion, most people think of a trillion as a large million. But look at it this way, if you have a trillion dollars and paid it out at $1.00 per second, $60 per minute, $3600 per hour, 24 hours per day, no breaks, every day, weekends too, no holidays, how many years would it take to pay out one trillion dollars? Take a guess. The answer is 38,000 years. A trillion seconds is 38,000 years long. Jesus Christ was preaching a mere 2000 years ago. The last Ice Age was about 10,000 years ago. 38,000 years is a looooong time. $1 trillion is a looooooot of money. And we are spending it on destruction and death.
Rather, leave it.
"Afghanistan: This War Won't Work"
Wrong - it's working perfectly. Without it, the Offense - I mean, Defense Industry would tank, and so would the rest of what's left of the US economy.
Stop pretending we're occupying Afghanistan and Iraq for reasons other than PMC profits. It's pathetic at this point.
I again humbly suggest, after reading all the previous complaints and lamentations:
It's all DAFT.
Again, I suggest that multi-partisan general public support is essential to any 'exit strategy' from the mess that America is trapped in.
- brain injury and PTSD -
The US military and its soldiers are being ruined because the war it is trapped in is DAFT. Military families need to know this.
- Yes, TRILLION -
the money is going to the DAFT war because National Security trumps the Commonwealth of the ciitzens. That's because this is America at WAR and not America, a nation at peace.
End the DAFT war by bringing the DAFT law out of the dark of the far Right and into the light of day.
The President mentioned this law 12/1/09. The author only saw "Obama's escalation speech..."
locust mentions this law.
The American Republic relies on a well-informed citizenry. I humbly suggest informing the citizens, for example, that America is the only country that declared war on future terrorists. That's DAFT.
"multi-partisan general public support is essential"
What does that look and sound like...any particulars?
Unfortunately, just like in Iraq, everything will probably work just fine. The mistake the author makes is in the assumption that the stated goals of the U.S. government are reality. The truth is that they are not. Stabilization to the extent the U.S. can control oil pipeline routing and construction is the goal and it requires neither democratic governance or a placated populace. A peace treaty with the Taliban will suffice and forcing the Taliban to the bargaining table is what the troop increase is all about.
What else could you do with all that money? Given the current state of the U.S. energy infrastructure, nothing; all the money in the world won't build a school without the oil energy to carry out the task. It's not about safety anyway, it's about energy.
I do not see evidence of US success in controlling resources in Afghanistan.
On the contrary, other countries are benefitting.
China will make out big time extracting raw materials and having US soldiers dying to protect their interests.
And why not? Their foreign policies are sane while America's is DAFT.
The IPI pipeline is not mentioned hereabouts, only the TAPI. Why?
--23 January 2010, TEHRAN - Iran and Pakistan have resolved all issues concerning the long-pending Iran-Pakistan-India pipeline project (dubbed peace pipeline).
Peace pipeline. While America finds itself trapped in a DAFT war, on the wrong side of history.
Locust -- yes China is taking the largest moutain of copper in the world out Afghanistan.
There are two pipelines in Afghanistan ( or they are beginning construction) on the TAPI route.
The IPI only, for now, is going Iran--- Pakistan, India for the moment has backed out over transit fees.
The USA does not want this non USA controled pipeline.
IPI does not travel through Afghanistan.
All three lines enter Pakistan in Baluchistan, where Omar is in Quetta and the Blackwater maintained drone base.
USA is requesting that the USA be allowed to drone Quetta and Baluchistan.
"all the money in the world won't build a school without the oil energy to carry out the task."
Then how do you explain the fact that schools predate the use of oil by several thousand years?
The use of oil wasn't wide-spread until about 100 years ago.
- "Obama's escalation speech..." -
President O., 12/1/09 - "Just days after 9/11, Congress authorized the use of force against al Qaeda and those who harbored them -- an authorization that continues to this day."
The President's power 'to escalate' was given to him by Congress and is enshrined in law. We can continue to ignore this, or we can choose to be successful.
Take Mr. Obama's DAFT power away by repealing the law. The citizenry could do that, if they were well-informed.
I suggest we'll inform them by pointing out that it's all DAFT.
A well-informed citizenry in the USA? ROTFLMAO! Oh... that's rich....must breath... LOL!
"The recent Taliban attacks on Kabul provide another wake-up call about why this war in Afghanistan simply isn't going to work. It won't bring security to Afghans. It won't turn Afghanistan into a democracy. And it won't make us safer."
It won't make *us* safer?
Who is "us?" What "us" does Phyllis refer to when she says this?
If she's talking about the current crop of America's elite, then I disagree with her. These *useless* wars make our elite a lot safer by scapegoating some far-off land for the current domestic corruption and incompetence of our own elites.
As long as America's working class youth are fighting foreign boogeymen on the other side of the earth, then those walled suburbs in America are safe. As is Phyllis's position as a well-paid academic.
When Americans talk about the actions of the US corporate government, they are in the bad habit of using the word "us". I wish that they would cut it out. It is misleading and it is the result of brain washing.
Good point, thanks.... sort of like calling cancer "my illness"....
Any attempt to convince those in power that Afghanistan will never give in to its occupiers is futile. How many posts, how many editorials, how many letters and e-mails, how many marches, how many dead and wounded, how much treasure spent and nothing changes.
What is wrong with you people in Washington? Are you all that thick or just incompetent?
"What is wrong with you people in Washington? Are you all that thick or just incompetent?"
Neither. Their portfolios swell as arms manufacturers stocks rise, and now with the Supreme Court decision to allow corporate influence in Washington, only those politicians that heartily support the MIC will keep their cushy jobs.
Phyllis Bennis writes, "The recent Taliban attacks on Kabul provide another wake-up call about why this war in Afghanistan simply isn't going to work." Sorry, Phyllis, I am a great admirer of yours but today's article exemplifies unprincipled criticism. According to the argument of this article, if the tactics "work" should we support the war? By contrast, principled criticism says it doesn't matter whether imperialist aggression will "work"; all imperialist aggression is per se evil. --I am pretty sure Bennis knows this; which leads me to surmise that she has "dumbed down" her criticism in a misbegotten attempt to broaden her appeal.
As I see it, the WAR works fine, we'll be there for a few generations, no winners, only body counts, but as far as WAR goes, yup, new weapon systems, new tactics, new medical advances.... it all works.
Stop Press: Ron Paul tells it like it is to the US House of Reps. This guy is amazing.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xq_U-bjH4uY
No, he isn't listening. For, contrary to all reports, he lacks a brain.
no offense, Phyllis, but i think every sane person in the world has known all this for a long time.
except it is not and never was or could be a "war".
it is a brutal, pitifully one sided assault by the world's most powerful military force upon the weakest.
call it a massacre, and stop imagining it can "work"
war is a money machine. it's working.
None of the usual common knowledge about Afghanistan makes sense when looked at objectively...at least to me.
For one thing, NO nation in recent (50 years, but probably way more) even with technologically superior firepower and troops has ever conquered Afghanistan.
YET, we are to believe before 911, the taliban did it, with rifles, some heavier (but nothing like the west or Russia has brought to bear on them) arms, and pickup trucks...somehow managed to conquer this land of warlords, where everyone is pretty tough. And we "drove them out", but now they are back again, threatening to conquer Afghanistan once again, despite our best efforts.
EVEN if we weren't there, there is NO WAY the taliban can conquer the country UNLESS the country is leaning that way.
We are to believe these tough people crumble because the taliban use mafia like tactics and threats, and kill to make examples.
Is that belieivable at ALL? When the country that brought Russia and now the US to a standstill with all their firepower is supposedly "taken over" by guys with guns in pickup trucks...no. I don't buy it.
History is not your forte... Alexader the Great gave it a go in ...300 BC! Lots of others, but in the 19th century, the Brits tried it twice. Everybody eventually is chased out. As we will be.
I didn't say it was my forte, but I was right as you showed.
I was pointing out that no army has ever conquered them,
and that they are tough people, tough geography, etc.
BUT we are to believe that the taliban have done just that, TWICE.
Once before 911, once after.
I think mostly the taliban work in mafia style warfare, but the
afghans are not people who cowtow, and fold easily...so what is the
story?
Abuelo: You beat me to it. I was going to post that people who should know better should stop calling this a 'war.' It was an invassion and is an ongoing, viscious, murderous occupation for a pipeline the US wanted to build and was refused permission, just weeks before the tragic convenience of 11th September. Afghanistan is also strategically very conveniently placed for America's future aspirations to 'liberate' and 'democrotise' (read: pillage natural resources.
Human beings are not given freedom and democrocy by guns, bombs, drones, depleted uranium, white phosphorous, torture, door kicking-in, or being 'rendered' to Guantanamo, Bagram - or their graves.
America's safety lies in halting attacks on other countries, alienating vast swathes of the world. Not the Islamic world as always trumpeted, but the whole world of all creeds or none, and all colours.
Abuelo: You beat me to it. I was going to post that people who should know better should stop calling this a 'war.' It was an invassion and is an ongoing, viscious, murderous occupation for a pipeline the US wanted to build and was refused permission, just weeks before the tragic convenience of 11th September. Afghanistan is also strategically very conveniently placed for America's future aspirations to 'liberate' and 'democrotise' (read: pillage natural resources.
Human beings are not given freedom and democrocy by guns, bombs, drones, depleted uranium, white phosphorous, torture, door kicking-in, or being 'rendered' to Guantanamo, Bagram - or their graves.
America's safety lies in halting attacks on other countries, alienating vast swathes of the world. Not the Islamic world as always trumpeted, but the whole world of all creeds or none, and all colours.
The major victim is the US citizen's mind in which justice and peace are being mercilessly beaten to death.
In the future the world will continue to have to deal with the distorted minds of young Americans from the USA. Right now we are watching the antics of aging 'victors' whose minds were skewed by the 'just' wars of the 20century when they were young.
US citizens are doing themselves the most shocking damage. Those they kill in far away lands die with honour. Those US citizens that numerous families mourn in America die as plundering beasts, as unaware they are beasts as only beasts can be.
Characteristically, US citizens systemastically dishonour their youth in honour of megalomania.
Now don't blame the messenger.
.
It is so sad..............the American Dream, the New World's Experiment with Democracy, and George W. Bush's boasting of Americam Imperial Greatness have all died.
Ten years from now, the vultures will be eating our dead, right from the streets of our decaying cities.
Geogre W. Bush, Dick Cheney, and their NeoCons Gang betrayed and doomed the United States of America.
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