Afghanistan: Buckle Your Seat Belts
Obama's decision to go along with the Petraeus/McChrystal campaign for a massive escalation in Afghanistan and the Pakistani borderlands contradicts every precept of sound strategy and statesmanship. Rarely, if ever, has a great power so willfully set itself down the path of self-destruction with so little reason. This is pathological behavior that cries out for diagnosis and correction.
The stake is the supposed presence of less than a hundred al-Qaida personnel who long ago lost control of their loose franchise operation and have next to no capacity themselves to do us harm. As for the Taliban, strictly a local outfit, we are not their enemy - except as occupiers of Afghanistan. It is impossible, therefore, to reach our zero tolerance threshold for any "bad guys" active anywhere in AF/PAK for evermore - that is the fanciful goal of Obama's doomed policy. The costs and hazards are enormous. They include severe political strife and, perhaps, civil war in Pakistan of which we are a primary cause. Yet, public debate is non-existent. Why?
Afghanistan is not a "people's war"; it is a war of America's political class that is nearly unanimous in endorsing its ends and means. A clear majority of the public opposes the Obama escalation - 54% at last tally. This is stunning given the drumbeat of ritual war cries from every corner. Not a single elected official of stature has denounced it. The dread Americans feel that 9/11 might happen again is eclipsed by an instinctive fear of the high price and the risks of becoming custodian of this alien and violent land.
One explanation for the discrepancy lies in the residual trauma of 9/11. It has been so effectively exploited for eight years that public deference tends to be taken for granted. Among leaders, that horrific event continues to fire audacious schemes in the most remote corners of the world, commitments that are open-ended and ill-defined.
A second explanation is the fallacious analogy with Iraq, where our ruinous experience has been cynically recast as a success. Let's face it: Iraq is a lost cause - whether the cause was using it as a model of American style democratic virtue or as a bridgehead for American power in the region. Its future is beyond our control or even influence. The Iraqi Shi'ite leaders are showing us the door and welcoming the embrace of their Iranian co-religionists who are omnipresent and have intimate ties to every faction. This kick in the face has been easily concealed because Americans tuned out as soon as they were given a palatable story, i.e. the tall tale of Petraeus of Arabia, to cover the nation's shocking failure.
The sad truth is that the summary firing of General McKiernan and his replacement by General McChrystal was inspired primarily by the Pentagon's desire to have a colorful man in charge who was adroit at public relations. Admiral Mike Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said just that at the time. McChrystal, he explained, was someone who could work the Obama administration, Congress and the public via shows of flair on Sunday morning talk shows. That is exactly what he has devoted his time to doing between occasional appearances in the war zone.
The Afghan "surge" will not produce even the veneer of "success" that its model did in Iraq. Perhaps if we manage somehow to hang onto a rough outline of the script, we'll still be in Kabul when the Taliban blow up the Finance, Justice and Foreign Affairs Ministries - as the Iraqi insurgents recently have done in Baghdad. The corresponding date, using 'surge' day 1 as reference, is February 16, 2013. Just in time for a re-elected President Obama to announce the next 'necessary' war - God only knows where.
Is the implication then that Obama's ends in the Greater Middle East are no different at their core from Bush's? That is to say, to reconfigure the political terrain of the entire region so as to eliminate any forces hostile to the United States and thereby regain the absolute security lost on 9/11? Everything Obama has done in practice, as opposed to word, conforms to that reading. The common denominator is Washington's conceit and unjustified faith in our intrinsic superiority and omnipotence.
Obama now has given his blessing to a drastic troop increase even as he muses about an 'off-ramp.' We all know what happens when you eye the off-ramp going at high speed - whether it is 70, 80, 90 or 100 mph. He and his 'dream team' seem imbued with the Lamborghini ethos: if you go fast enough, all accidents occur behind you. Perhaps all things seem possible when viewed while airborne at 38,000 feet. On the ground, it will be McChrystal pressing the hammer to the floor, Petraeus navigating, Hillary in the backseat tele-messaging Bill for triangulation directions, Biden yapping about the Islamabad turn-off and Holbrooke mumbling that we'll know the off-ramp when we see it. More probably when we feel it.
One thing is sure, the financial burden will fall on taxpayers - whether today or tomorrow. Let's put things in perspective. This year's supplementary funding request alone is $40 billion. Wall Street's projected bonus pool for 2009 is $38 billion. A neat match - for a President less prone to sublimating awkward facts. Lloyd Blankfein, Goldman Sach's CEO, has sworn this weekend that he "is doing God's work." Is it not time that he and his colleagues pledge fealty to Patrie and Duty as well as God by forking over the $38 billion as a patriotic act? The Heavenly Father Himself may find such a selfless act reason to credit Mr. Blankfein's otherwise suspect avowal of faith.
In all seriousness, we should ask ourselves a deeply troubling question: What is it about the American political elite and foreign policy community that impels them to act as masters of the world when they so obviously have neither the wits nor the aptitude nor the resources for succeeding in their grandiose ambitions? Why the relentless effort to demonstrate that a Democratic administration can be as stubbornly wrong as its Republican predecessor? What is behind the impulse to jump into the Afghan cauldron when our rear is still being singed in Iraq? Is this American pro-activism run amok? Is it the last fling at proving that we indeed are God's chosen instrument for redeeming the world? Or, frankly, are there too many power-point warriors whose self esteem depends on vicarious acts of heroism?
Dylan Ratigan: Veterans: Lip Service, Bankers: Billions & America: Foreclosures - Here's The Fix
If we must resort to handouts to save our country, let's at least put them in the hands of the most deserving. We should start with the roughly 2 million veterans who served in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Loading comments…
Want to reply to a comment? Hint: Click "Reply" at the bottom of the comment; after being approved your comment will appear directly underneath the comment you replied to
photo
I believe that our purpose in existing in this world is to unite many trillions of pieces to make it ONE. The only way to achieve this goal is to get the power from your heart which is energized by the soul, getting its own energy from water; the source of life. Magnetism unites; therefore, we must use ourselves as magnets. To do this you have to get involved in peace because peace is uniting and war is destructive.
When I was a school teacher in a small village in the Mountains Of Morocco which had many tribes that spoke a dialect that I did not understand and I had to teach First and Second Grade Arabic, Third Grade Arabic and French plus general subjects for all the grades mentioned, such as Math, Social Studies etc., all in a one room schoolhouse. We planted an organic garden and collected plastic containers to store rain and river water in, which we used for drinking water. I realized the fantastic job my students did in learning from a foreigner (me). Through this learning process, we became a family. One year later I got transferred. Nine years later a young man came to my father's house to thank me for all I had done for him and all the other students.
The bottom line is, no matter what, we can reach our goals if we believe in ourselves and love another; for through diversity we become ONE.
Remember the war was financed off balance sheet, as a budget supplemental. That's like the proverbial blank check.
Gerald Celente says there will be more terror attacks very soon. He backs up his prediction with razor sharp analysis of current trends. I predict he's right about the terror attacks. So Obama will get plenty of support by a terrorized American nation.
I reluctantly concur that it looks as if Obama is failing to keep his head above water in the face of the deadly undercurrent of corruption in Congress.
This does not, however, mean that it would be a good thing to have George Bush back in power - or any of the rest of that death-wish pack, for that matter.
My feeling is that it is still our best bet to hang on to Obama, and do whatever is necessary to stop him drowning. Watching and waiting is no longer a viable philosophy.
This is all anyone needs to know: Iraq was about oil, Afghanistan is about a pipeline. Everything else is just a distraction or a cover story.
So you're implying that Al Qaeda went to Afghanistan to protect Taliban from noe-colonialist Unocal building an oil pipeline through Afghanistan?
I wouldn't be surprised.
Relax, our exit strategy is 2012, the end of the world. Rapture at last.
Bravo. The pathology and obsession are over the top, and I thank you for giving voice to that. Now it is time for Obama to do the same (though as you point out, he may be in bed w traditional DC attitudes vis a vis US and the lesser folks in the rest of the world). But imagine if Obama put his speaking talents to helping Americans understand just how and why they have been victimized by the Pentagon--how the US footprint around the world has contributed so much to the terrorist attacks that we now fear; how the John Wayne response only guarantees our demise. Can you imagine that?
Given what Obama has done after getting elected, no, I cannot imagine that.
I have hope and faith .All of us can free and renew Afghanistan.If the
king HassanII gathered 350.000 people in the time when not all of us
can access the internet. with this tool we have now we should do this.
If
you gather more than 1000 to protest health care how many we can gather
to act. All we need is peace
When wa...r failed Peace should prevailed.
they tried war for ages, it did not work..
Its time to try peace." all we are saying is give peace a chance"
Give peace a Chance
Source: www.youtube.com
All we are saying is give peace a chance
MZ: I, too, believe in "Give peace a Chance." I detest war and more war. The little w. guy and his band of thieves, liars, and warmongers sent our teenagers off to die and 4600 of them lie dead under the ground. Our country is bankrupt, but we still beat the drums for more war? It makes no sense and must stop now.
"Yet, public debate is non-existent. Why? " Because the all-volunteer military ensures that most of us have no stake in the war, other than our wallets. It allows a president to pursue an unpopular war without repercussions.
In different parts of the world we keep creating messy situations that we have to go and try to fix later on. While it made sense to us back in the early 80's to support Osama BL and his jihadists against the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, by leaving the destroyed country to fend for itself after the Russian defeat we left a void that the Talibans were quick to fill up.
Had we spent a couple of billions $ back then to help Afghanistan modernize itself we wouldn't have the very costly fiasco we have now and that we'll be trying to fix for the next 25 years. But no, the Russians got their butt kicked by our CIA-trained jihadists, we patted ourselved on the back, and the hell with Afghanistan! We lost our interest in the country.
We propped up Sadam's army against the Iranians during the US/UK-instigated Iran-Iraq war hoping we would get rid of the mullahs once for all, but later on we had to spend several billion of dollars and countless lives to get rid of him and the same army that we helped build up (chemical weapons included)...
I could go on and on... This is short-sightedness! It seems to me that the only people who benefit from all that mess we keep creating around the world is the Military-Industrial Complex: in other words, the weapons industry and their cronies who couldn't care less about human lives. Insane world!
When you think about all of the resources sunk into the middle east a result of stupidity, arrogance, and greed, it just boggles the imagination. A whole society in decline to save it? One should not feel heroism and patriotism for the destruction of foreign nations fed by falsehoods, false assumptions and sheer greed.
Thank you for the truth Mr. Brenner.
thank you, thank you, thank you.
This "war ids te most absurd thing we have EVER gotten into, and we have gotten into some beauts.
Time to declare victory and get out.
Brenner's article is quite correct. We are blundering into Afghanistan like a sleep-walker. He is correct to diagnose the trauma inflicted upon the American psyche by 9/11. It can't be repeated enough: we need a REAL investigation of that day and what happened. It has had a massive effect on the way we see the world. Another point I rarely hear mentioned is that if we don't waste so much money on a military engagement, we are therefore all the better positioned financially to stay tuned into the region and do what we can. Face it people: we used Afghanistan and now the bill is coming due. Let's pay it intelligently. Otherwise, all y'all that want to march to war, have at it!
Serendipity to your post - he's stated he's declining all four options and told the DOD and his staff to
"try that one again"...and "the buck stops here".
He needed to do that.
And he did.
Now, we'll see.
It is wrong, morally stategically and militarily, to abandon Afghans to Taliban and the coterie of foreign Jihadsits all over again. Period. End of discussion.
The only debate possible is how to defeat and demoralize Taliban and Jihadist groups and build up Afghan infrastructure. This is the only exit policy that should be debated.
Why do you bother to post if that's the end of the discussion? Let's waste blood and treasure to "build up Afghan infrastructure" and you can erect the theme park of your choice.
You chose to betray Afghans the second time around. Then you deal with the immorality of it on your own.
Who do you propose finances the ambitious plan of yours to build a non-existent infrastructure in Afghanistan. Have you talked to the Chinese? We are broke or hadn't you heard. If China loses interest in financing your plan which no military person has ever even vaguely suggested we were capable of doing, do you have another lender in mind. Petraeus has said repetitively that to wage a possibly successful counterinsurgency in Afghanistan we would need over 500,000 troops and up to 25 years. Are you willing to personally go to Afghanistan to accomplish this? Check out American history. Americans do not support decade long wars.
No, it is not the end of the debate. You are wrong. End of discussion with you.
...because most of the people who made these war mongering decisions believe in God. They don't believe in karma.
I doubt you have the first idea what karmic law is about.
Just look at the cause of their decisions on getting involved with Afghan during the time of the USSR and look and the effects now. You don't have to be a scholar to see the Law of the Univesre in action.
I doubt you have the first idea what moral law is about.
You must be logged in to comment. Log in or connect with
