Meanwhile, About Afghanistan…
08 November 2009 2:51 pm by Taylor Marsh
The latest TM-DC podcast is up.
Last Friday I listened to Sect. Hillary Clinton give a speech at the first “No Limits” conference. This is Ann Lewis’ group made up of, well, the political arm of what’s left of Clinton’s 2008 campaign, though that’s my interpretation, not the official line. Clinton was subdued and substantively serious. At one point she addressed our involvement around the world: Why do we involve ourselves in conflicts that “are insoluable?” Her answer was simple: “It’s imperative for us to keep our eyes on where we want to lead the world,” as we “create space for good things to happen” around the world. If that doesn’t describe Afghanistan, nothing does, though to say most progressives haven’t embraced that one is an understatement.
It covers last week’s election, as well as my analysis of Clinton’s speech. Let’s just say she might have been subdued, but something happened at the end… Well, you’ll have to listen to find out. (…issues beyond health care, if you need a break from that one.)
President Obama deliberating on his Afghanistan strategy now has Fort Hood as a backdrop.
Jeffrey Goldberg doesn’t waste a moment digging down, deep and dumb on what it all means in “When Muslims Commit Violence,” which should read When Analysis Gets Stuck On Stupid.
It seems, though, that when an American military officer who is a practicing Muslim allegedly shoots forty of his fellow soldiers who are about to deploy to the two wars the United States is currently fighting in Muslim countries, some broader meaning might, over time, be discerned, especially if the officer did, in fact, yell “Allahu Akbar” while murdering his fellow soldiers, as some soldiers say he did. This is the second time this year American soldiers on American soil have been gunned down by a Muslim who was reportedly unhappy with America’s wars in the Middle East (the first took place in Arkansas, to modest levels of notice). And, of course, this would not be the first instance of an American Muslim soldier killing fellow soldiers over his disagreements with American foreign policy; in 2003, Army Sgt. Hasan Akbar killed two officers and wounded fourteen others when he rolled a grenade into a tent in a homicidal protest against American policy.
Shorter Jeffrey: It’s not at all about Muslims, except when it is.
It’s much simpler and certainly less incendiary. Some people are not equipped to hear soldiers’ horrific war stories without being severely affected themselves. Major Hasan was obviously one of them, as I talk about on the podcast.
All this as the dateline for more troops comes into focus. Next March, according to McClatchy, 34,000 could be the number:
President Barack Obama is nearing a decision to send more than 30,000 additional U.S. troops to Afghanistan next year, but he may not announce it until after he consults with key allies and completes a trip to Asia later this month, administration and military officials have told McClatchy.
As it now stands, the administration’s plan calls for sending three Army brigades from the 101st Airborne Division at Fort Campbell, Ky. and the 10th Mountain Division at Fort Drum, N.Y. and a Marine brigade, for a total of as many as 23,000 additional combat and support troops. …
Go back to Clinton’s words last Friday at the top of this post. Repeat them to yourself, add humanitarian obligation and the importance of women around the world to stabilizing nations, and it’s all you need to know.
