What are we doing?
02 December 2009 12:12 pm by Taylor Marsh
Seriously, I don’t think anyone knows.
A glimmer of reality surfaces, via Thomas Friedman:
To now make Afghanistan part of the “war on terrorism” — i.e., another nation-building project — is not crazy. It is just too expensive, when balanced against our needs for nation-building in America, so that we will have the strength to play our broader global role. – Thomas Friedman
Pres. Obama’s speech sounds and reads worse today than it did last night to me. “Our security is at stake in Afghanistan and Pakistan,” but all that will be taken care of by the addition of 30,000 troops, which will magically fix everything and also enable us to begin withdrawing by summer 2011.
Pigs in flight.
Sect. Clinton’s quote, according to Knoller, reveals the smokescreen that everyone senses. Arianna said it plainly on “Morning Joe.” Nobody believes it. They shouldn’t.
Politicians didn’t want to admit that our mission in Afghanistan was nation building, having a lot to do with securing for the Afghans what we destroyed, beginning back in the Reagan era. But now that’s too expensive, which is understandable. However, the rhetorical camouflage coming from all political quarters, using al Qaeda and the Taliban as the real reason for our involvement, makes everyone sound like idiots. Again, in Afghanistan, which is the focus here, experts say there are less than 100 al Qaeda, with the Taliban an indigenous reality, which certainly cannot be “defeated” by 2011, if ever.
Stabilizing Afghanistan will take a decade, but it still won’t secure Pakistan. So again, what are we doing?
Sen. Durbin isn’t quite sure either:
“The president believes that gives the Afghans enough time, and the Pakistanis enough time to take control of the situation… The president took some time to reach his decision, I’m going to need some time to reach mine,” Durbin said.
Obama inherited this mess, of that there is no doubt. He’s about to make it worse by escalating troops into a sausage grinder of death, without the clear purpose of nation building so that we have something to show for the blood and treasure at the end, coupled with a nation whose women will finally be able to rise closer to a place where they can help stabilize the country, which is in the middle of a strategic area of the world that very much impacts our national security and that of our allies.
One more time, with feeling. What are we doing?
Well, we’re not doing nation building in Afghanistan anymore. So, there’s absolutely no reason to be there at all.
