Paul Craig Roberts - The No-Think Nation

[Starfury]

July 12, 2005
The Jobs Problem is Worse Than the War Problem
The No-Think Nation

By PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS

Thought is not an American forte. Consider the speed with which our government got us trapped in two quagmires, Iraq and Afghanistan.

The CIA says that Bush's invasion of Iraq has created ideal conditions for training insurgents and terrorists. The longer we are there, the worse it gets.

Our military is being worn down by a gratuitous war of no benefit to anyone except Osama bin Laden. Bush's war has provided substance for bin Laden's propaganda and radicalized the Middle East.

Bush's war is being financed by debt, and the result is to give our foreign bankers more control over our interest rates and our currency's value, should they choose to use the power we have placed in their hands.

Not only has our government demonstrated an inability to think before rushing to war, it cannot think about the economy either.

(rest snipped)

http://www.counterpunch.org/roberts07122005.html

[brokensymmetry]

1. Great article!

Thanks, and a :kick:

[zapp]

2. Maybe I am not as informed, But I thought that Afghanistan

wasn't as quagmirish as Iraq.

Am I wrong?

[Starfury]

3. Don't forget the "Newsweek" riots.....

Plus troop redeployments:

About 700 GIs from 82nd Airborne to deploy to Afghanistan
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x1623644

Aussies:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200507/s1411926.htm

It's a matter of perspective, perhaps. Compared to Iraq, it seems less quagmirish, but there's much of the country controlled by the Taliban, and our troops have worn out their welcome.

(Edit: removed an incorrect link.)

[LynnTheDem]

4. Secret UK troops plan for Afghan crisis

DEFENCE chiefs are planning to rush thousands of British troops to Afghanistan in a bid to stop the country sliding towards civil war, Scotland on Sunday can reveal.

Ministers have been warned they face a "complete strategic failure" of the effort to rebuild Afghanistan and that 5,500 extra troops will be needed within months if the situation continues to deteriorate.

An explosive cocktail of feuding tribal warlords, insurgents, the remnants of the Taliban, and under-performing Afghan institutions has left the fledgling democracy on the verge of disintegration, according to analysts and senior officers.

The looming crisis in Afghanistan is a serious setback for the US-led 'War on Terror'...

"There's no doubt whatsoever that Afghanistan is caught in a very difficult position, where it is very hard to progress without committing more forces.

"There is not enough Coalition power, or Afghan government power, to extend their writ into the areas that have proved impossible to control. This is going to be a very difficult period.

http://news.scotsman.com/uk.cfm?id=559872005


07/12/05 DoD: Identifies Marine Casualty
Lance Cpl. Kevin B. Joyce, 19, of Ganado, Ariz., died June 25 after falling into the Pech River while conducting combat operations in Afghanistan. He was assigned to 2nd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, 3rd Marine Division, III MEF

07/12/05 DAWN: Oil supply to Afghanistan disrupted
Oil supply to Afghanistan was disrupted on Monday when dozens of oil tanker owners parked their vehicles at Torkham border, citing security reasons inside Afghanistan.

07/11/05 DOD: Navy Casualty Is Identified
Petty Officer 2nd Class Matthew G. Axelson, 29, of Cupertino, Calif, died while conducting counter-terrorism operations in Kunar province, Afghanistan. Coalition forces located the service member ... July 10 in Kunar province.

07/11/05 AP: 4 Afghan rebels escape from main U.S. detention facility
Four suspected insurgents escaped Monday from the main U.S. base in Afghanistan, the first time anyone has broken out of the heavily guarded detention facility, sparking a massive ground and air search, officials said.

07/11/05 HTMedia: Police kill four Taliban militants in southern Afghanistan
Afghan police killed four Taliban fighters and arrested one in a clash in the country's south that also left one officer wounded, a provincial government spokesman said today.

07/11/05 Aljazeera: Taliban, Afghan forces clash
The Taliban says it killed seven government soldiers, adding that one of its members has also been killed, while government sources say their forces killed seven Taliban members.

07/11/05 CENTCOM: FINAL TEAM MEMBER FOUND
The final member was located during a combat search and rescue operation July 10 in Kunar province. The location and disposition of the service member's remains indicate he died while fighting off enemy terrorists on or about June 28.

07/11/05 AP:: Twelve Afghan soldiers killed Sunday
Twelve other Afghan soldiers were killed Sunday when a land mine blew up under their vehicle in Paktika province, also near the border with Pakistan, provincial deputy police chief Ghulam Nabi said.

07/11/05 Reuters: Body of U.S. commando found in Afghanistan
The body of a U.S. commando ... has been found and recovered ... The Navy SEAL commando was killed in a shoot ... and there was "no way" he had been held in captivity, contrary claims by Taliban guerrillas ...

07/10/05 AP: 10 Afghan Soldiers Beheaded by Militants
Suspected Taliban gunmen ambushed an Afghani government border patrol in the desert near the frontier with Pakistan, killing 10 soldiers and beheading their bodies, a provincial governor said Sunday.

07/09/05 abcasiapacific: Taliban insurgents claim to have killed US commando in Afghanistan
Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan say they have executed a US commando they had been holding hostage since last week

http://icasualties.org/oef/

[LibertyorDeath]

5. Thanks excellent

Rec

[Robert Oak]

6. Paul Craig Roberts

He's written some fanastic stuff on the "free trade" insanity
as well.
This is a conservative Republican.

My hope is that Conservative Republicans and liberals join forces
(they agree considerably on economic, trade and sometimes foreign/military issues and maybe just some sort of "agree to disagree"
on social issues for the moment) to get these idiots out of power.

I think what binds them and liberals together is a real concern
for the nation...

[HamdenRice]

7. Excellent but ... naive

In the article, he wrote:

"In the short-run the corporations benefit. The lower labor costs raise profits and executive bonuses. But the long-run effect is to destroy the US consumer market for the goods and services that the corporations supply from abroad."

This is an old fashioned way of looking at corporations -- namely that they need the US consumer market, so they have an interest in maintaining a US middle class. This was the reasoning behind old Henry Ford's raising the wages of his workers.

This model suggests that corporations are working against their own interests, producing stuff overseas but needing ultimately to sell those products here.

But Walmart is opening up stores in China. They can eventually move entirely off shore -- production and sale -- and leave the US a used up empty shell. They are concerned about creating a billion member Asian middle class more than maintaining a hundred million member US middle class.

The ultimate purpose of the US will be to produce red state praetorian guard -- mercenaries to protect the oil fields and not much more.

[sadiesworld]

8. .