printWhen it comes to the wastrel wars the US is waging, there are few difference between the Democrats and the Republicans. If cleavages do exist, they are a matter of degree; John Kerry favors “a modest increase in U.S. troops”; The Other John is for a “huge surge.” You’d think that the always-opportunistic Republicans would see an opportunity to open up a lead by forging a new foreign policy. For as their economic fortunes have turned, so too have the American people turned against the wars in a big way.
But when Newt Gingrich and Sean Hannity speak of a strong national defense, they are down with the party that wants to linger in places where Americans are unwanted (sometimes called nation-building): The Democrats.
Yesterday, there was a “bloodbath in Baghdad”: “Two car bombs turned Baghdad into a killing field on Sunday October 25th, claiming the lives of at least 155 people and injuring hundreds more.”
Today, reports the AP, Kabul was the scene of a helicopter crash that killed 14 Americans — 11 troops and three Drug Enforcement Administration agents, “in the deadliest day for the U.S. mission in Afghanistan in more than four years.”
So far BO, the recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, has sustained Bush’s efforts in both theaters, while giving a good deal of thought to accelerating them.
Update I (Oct. 27): AP: As OB dithers—but not in the way the colossal Dick Cheney meant it—“Eight [more] American troops were killed in two separate insurgent attacks Tuesday in southern Afghanistan”:
The military issued a statement saying the deaths occurred during “multiple, complex” bomb strikes. It said several troops were wounded and evacuated to a nearby medical facility, but gave no other details.
Capt. Adam Weece, a spokesman for American forces in the south, said both attacks occurred in Kandahar province. In Washington, a U.S. defense official said at least one was followed by an intense firefight with insurgents who attacked after an initial bomb went off. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to release the information.
The deaths bring to 55 the total number of American troops killed in October in Afghanistan.
Update II: Matthew Hoh, “a former Marine Corps captain with combat experience in Iraq,” writes the WaPo, has become “the first U.S. official known to resign in protest over the Afghan war, which he had come to believe simply fueled the insurgency.”
I have lost understanding of and confidence in the strategic purposes of the United States’ presence in Afghanistan,” he wrote Sept. 10 in a four-page letter to the department’s head of personnel. “I have doubts and reservations about our current strategy and planned future strategy, but my resignation is based not upon how we are pursuing this war, but why and to what end.
[SNIP]
Whereas a Republican administration would have opted to smear this principled fellow—as it did Scott Ritter, the 12-year Marine Corps and gulf-war veteran who opposed the rabid attack on Iraq—the Obama overlords have tried to co-opt him; bribe him with career inducements. U.S. Ambassador Karl W. Eikenberry “offered him a job on his senior embassy staff.” Richard C. Holbrooke, “the administration’s special representative for Afghanistan, … asked Hoh to join his team in Washington.”
“Hoh accepted the argument and the job, but changed his mind a week later:
many Afghans, he wrote in his resignation letter, are fighting the United States largely because its troops are there — a growing military presence in villages and valleys where outsiders, including other Afghans, are not welcome and where the corrupt, U.S.-backed national government is rejected. … the United States is asking its troops to die in Afghanistan for what is essentially a far-off civil war.
Ritter rising.
Another Day, Another Corrupt DC Crowd !
One of the dead in the collision over Helmand Province was a good friend of mine. We were less than two weeks away from coming home and had not lost any air crew until now. I just want to thank everyone here for voicing the truth about this unjust war and occupation. It is not lost on myself and others that what is going on here is a futile effort.
[Bless you; we pray for your safety and grieve for your loss.]
U.S. official resigns over Afghan war
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/26/AR2009102603394.html
It made no sense then and continues to make no sense now why we are in either arena.
With the advent of renewalable energy sources just around the corner, we’ll finally be able to justify with cause an all out assault on the Saudies.
The Prince, Machiavelli said, is contemptible when he is considered “fickle, frivolous, effeminate, mean-spirited, irresolute”. So much contemptible out and about (they even hand out Nobels for it now) yet so little contempt to confront it, and yet, to despair is a sin.
It bears repeating: these wars are undeclared, unconstitutional, immoral and unwinnable. We are the aggressors, and the nations we are fighting are in no way a threat to our national security.
These are wars of choice, not of defense. As such, those who prosecute these wars are criminals, and should be treated accordingly.
Let’s see – 15 Saudis and a few others, living for years in Europe and America, hijacked some airplanes. Next thing, we overthrow the Taliban government since they would not hand over Bin Laden. Then we go after Saddam Hussein to stop a mushroom cloud from engulfing us. Then we go after random bucktooth Pushtun local tribesmen because the Taliban sometimes pass through their mountain valleys. THIS NEVER STOPS! And the “bipartisan” foreign policy establishment has supported this idiotic interventionism all along. Keep in mind that the US was never attacked FROM Afghanistan or Iraq!
Today, a Foreign Service Officer resigned over our Afghanistan policy – claiming that we are FEEDING the insurgency and FIGHTING the insurgency at the same time.
This is a good read for those who give a **** about the people dying over there:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/…/AR2009102603394.html
Tip O’ Neill said “All politics are local” but the Washington geniuses think every village in Afghanistan is just like America.
LBJ thought going into Vietnam was stupid but went in anyway, resulting in 58,000 Americans and 4 million Indochinese dead because otherwise the Republicans would raise political hell for him! That’s the OINKVILLE political mentality.
Reading Mr.Pauli’s excellent comment, I cannot but remember how vilified, denounced as traitors were those who dared say 9/11 was payback for all those tons of American ordnance dropped over countries that never directly attacked of even threaten America? Does anybody have a list of these countries? No need to go further back than 1945. On top of that, add all the names of those American men and women in uniform dying needlessly. Makes you wonder who the real ‘traitors’ are.
Andy,
A Big Thank You for your service and to you and Matthew for telling us the real story the way you see it on the ground.
God Speed to you and all your colleagues in our Armed Forces.
Andy, yes, thank you and we will be praying.
How could anyone believe that the war in Afghanistan is “winnable?” All they have to do is outlast us, which they surely can. Beltway politicians are bad, but it is probably worse that most Americans have no grasp of history, certainly none of that area, and will believe whatever their “leaders” tell them.
By the way, whatever happened to Scott Ritter? Even though he was proven correct, I didn’t read about him being “rehabilitated” in terms of reputation.
I have a lovely editor,
Ilana is her name.
I can post the wildest comments
but they’ll always come out tame.
One day she will get tired of me
because I’m such a pain.
But I’ve had my fun
and spoke the truth
(unless I am deranged).
Matthew Hoh Video
http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=5427580n&tag=related;photovideo
This just from the NY Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/28/world/asia/28intel.html?_r=1&hp