Here’s the text of Pres. Obama’s speech on the war in Afghanistan.
And here are the highlights.
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A blog companion to the book by Susan Campbell
Dating Jesus 
Why tell our enemies that we will pull out in 18 months? What if we need 24 months…or longer?
I know people have gone back and forth on this. The commentary I listened to (I don’t normally do that, but I was trapped in a car and Top 40 bites) was split on the wisdom of that. One side said you’re telling the enemy and that’s a bad thing and the other side said you’re telling the people at home, and that’s a good thing. That last sentence is a gross generalization of the conversation, but I’m tired and might do better tomorrow.
If you like war, 30,000 more troops is woefully inadequate to meet the goals of crushing the Taliban and destroying Al Qaeda. It is, however, barely adequate to continue the never-ending destabilization and counterinsurgency action we have employed thus far. And he has promised that even if we do achieve whatever Orwellian definition he ascribes to “victory” in Afghanistan, there will be more countries to destabilize, invade and occupy in the future. Somalia and Kenya are still at the top of his hit parade, Kashmir and China also have a need for our love for limited but brutal warfare against “terrorists.” The need for our services grow tenfold with every country we invade or destabilize or both. And think of the job opportunities created by the need for even more mercenary forces.
If you like peace, well, you’re shit out of luck. Think “Single Payer.” (If this was a perfect world, peace of course would be the answer…..) We are, after all, acting in defense of human rights, (everybody else’s, not ours), as defined by Obama as requiring the need for our limited but brutal occupation and/or destabilization. Remember, we don’t invade, we don’t occupy, we don’t murder noncombatants. We act in defense of freedom and human rights, (everybody else’s, not ours).
And if you like civil liberties, well you’re shit out of luck there, too. Because acting in defense of human rights, (everybody else’s, not ours), demands the continual expansion of executive sovereignty, which will require, of course, continued expansion of the police state. If you think picking the enemy out of a group of Afghan women and children is difficult, try picking the enemy out of groups of minorities, immigrants and teabaggers back home. Not to mention all those UnAmerican antiwar agitators.
And if you’re a soldier hoping the elite officer corps and the Commander-in-Chief will recognize and act on the special needs of modern troops who commit themselves to the never-ending deployment required by brutal never-ending counterinsurgency warfare, well…..there are plenty of great opportunities with our mercenary forces.
So it’s a pig *#&^#*?
That’s about it.
But on the positive side…..it’s early.
If McChrystal screws up one more time, there could be some changes in ground policy. But which way would Obama jump? His preference for Cheney/Bush policy males me think “to the right, again.”
And there’s the excellent investigative work being done by Jeremy Scahill on the mercenary issue. He’s making people at the DoJ, DoD and JCoS very nervous. That could help.
Afghanistan needs a new, representative government. I hope the diplomacy mentioned by Obama includes getting some help in that regard.
But yeah….pig *#&^#*……
Is it possible to effect a democracy with Karzai in office?
I’m ready to rip the “Obama 08” bumper sticker off my car.
One of my friends actually did this recently.
I’ve thought about it too — would that make us fair-weather friends, or flexible?
I’m going to go with “open-minded.” I’m glad I’m disagreeing with a President. I’ve gone so long disagreeing with a President that agreeing with one makes me nervous. I’m only half-kidding.
Always worrisome to me when I agree with Pat Buchanan’s take on something, but here you go:
http://buchanan.org/blog/bitter-fruits-of-mideast-wars-2416
I don’t embrace everything in that essay, but I embrace enough where I kind of want to go wash off. Yikes.
“After escaping across the border into Pakistan in 2001 and 2002, al-Qaida’s leadership established a safe haven there. ”
I don’t understand why more hasn’t been done to go after al-Qaida. If we know they’ve been in Pakistan for the last 7-8 yrs, why haven’t we found them? Why do we continue to battle elsewhere? They are the severe threat. Why aren’t we going to the source instead of being distracted by battles with possible al-Qaida enablers?
That’s kind of been lost in the discussion, hasn’t it?
Yep. I think this should be THE discussion.
Wonder if it will be, though.
I think Obama is beginning to make progress with the Pakistan government and that is neccessary in order to be successful in finding al’Qaida. We need to work together with them. Maybe more is being done than is public. I would love to see a headline, out-of -the-blue, that Pakistani and American forces worked together and have captured Bin Laden & company. The world is too big a place to secure one small country (Afghanistan) and think that we are safe from al’Qaida.
What’d I think? I think I’m going to be at the federal building at 4:30 protesting this shit with all my nearest, dearest friends, assuming I can get there in time. Stuff to do, etc.
Go, Kick!
Flip him off once for me, will you, please?
Or twice if you get the chance, (one for Single Payer).