Afghanistan is the Tombstone of the Obama Presidency

[Truth2Tell]

From: HuffPo

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/harvey-wasserman/afghanistan-is-about-perp_b_788588.html

Harvey Wasserman
Posted: November 26, 2010 04:40 PM

Afghanistan Is About Perpetual War

Clip:

...

For a few infuriating weeks, Obama danced around the decision to escalate in Afghanistan. Rarely has a single human being had a greater chance to change history.

Obama could have stood up to the generals. He could have de-escalated. He could have begun the process of drawing down the military budget, the only way to save our economy.

More than 50% of taxpayer money goes to weaponry. We have troops in more than 100 countries. We spend more on our military than all the rest of the world combined. Throughout history -- Athens, Rome, Persia -- empires have spent themselves to military oblivion. We have now been in Afghanistan longer than the USSR.

With a simple speech, Obama could have begun the Great Reversal. It was a crystal clear moment. The public support was there. It was what he was elected to do.

But like Lyndon Johnson's catastrophic March 1965 decision to escalate the war in Vietnam, Obama went exactly the wrong way. He became the first man in history to accept the Nobel Peace Prize with a pro-war speech. With Bush's Secretary of War by his side, he ceded to the military our nation's most critical decision. He doomed our domestic economy and global ecology by burying us still deeper in the lethal quagmire of perpetual war.

All else is sad detail. When Obama caved on Afghanistan, so did his presidency.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/harvey-wasserman/afghanistan-is-about-perp_b_788588.html">Read the whole thing here...

[Pavulon]

1. yay palin. !!

I mean fuck the guy for placing policy above politics and placating poo throwing monkeys. He did what he said he would when he campaigned.

Rare.

[Truth2Tell]

3. Palin palin palin palin!!!11!

FEAR the PALIN!

[Pavulon]

4. Never underestimate stupidity and racisim.

so yeah, the story is stupid oped.

[JackRiddler]

24. Completely irrational reaction.

[Arctic Dave]

2. The only reason Obama has a chance at a second term is because

the repugs have no one that isn't quack. Other then that, he get blown out in a humiliating repug victory.

[catgirl]

12. Is that all you've got?

Any chance to to diss Obama...

[Arctic Dave]

22. Who are you?

[Catherina]

5. "Why don't they just leave?" he said. "What are they waiting for?"

...

"It's a mistake to call all of the fighters Taliban. The Taliban are madrasa students and I am a mullah, but most of my fighters are peasants and farmers and students who come from the government schools.

"In winter we send them to Pakistan to get some religious training, but they are not Taliban," Halimi said.

"When we sit and watch the news on TV we hear that the Taliban attacked here and there and destroyed tanks and killed soldiers. Then in the next news item you hear that the Americans are calling for negotiations and of course you understand that these two news items are related. The second news item is the result of the first, and the Americans want to negotiate because they are losing.

"Why don't they just leave?" he said. "What are they waiting for?"

...

"The Americans have one right only, and that is their right to be assured that Afghanistan will not be used against them and that is something the Taliban should give.

"Apart from that they have no rights, they have no right to tell us about democracy and human rights. That's an Afghan issue and it will be decided by the Afghans.

"The Americans behave with arrogance and if they don't want to be defeated in Afghanistan they should talk.

"They don't belong here," he said. "They are foreigners, outsiders."

November 26, 2010 by The Guardian/UK Talking to the Taliban about Life after Occupation

[alcibiades_mystery]

6. Melodrama

Anyone who analogizes Vietnam and Afghanistan is an idiot who knows nothing about either.

Love the melodramatic headline, though.

[Truth2Tell]

7. Thanks for the substantive reply. nt

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

8. Because lost wars have nothing in common.

Signed, Idiot.

[provis99]

9. no one in America is paying any attention to Afghanistan.

It's a footnote in Obama's administration.

[JackRiddler]

25. They weren't paying attention to Vietnam during the initial escalations, either.

Of course, things were different then, the biggest difference in domestic opinion being the draft.

But try another couple of years of the deadly farce in Afghanistan and see what people think then. As it now stands, many polls indicate US people would like to get the fuck out.

[Taverner]

10. No. It's not.

It may be what YOU and the writer don't like about Obama, and you're free to feel that way

But there are many others, like me, who realize what he is up against

[Truth2Tell]

11. what is he up against? nt

[Taverner]

13. Ever hear of the Military Industrial Complex?

[Pavulon]

14. Those companies that employ Union Labor in Bath, Ingalls, Groton and washington state

yeap the enemy for sure. Bet there a few in California, paying nice union wages. The enemy for sure.

[undeterred]

15. What does he have to lose by standing up to it?

[Taverner]

20. Um, his life....

[undeterred]

26. Why should someone be commander-in-chief who isn't willing

to risk his life for his country? It's obvious to anyone who runs for president that there are all kinds of risks. But wouldn't a man of integrity rather die while doing the right thing than caving in to the powers that seek to control the presidency?

[Truth2Tell]

17. If Obama were "up against" the MIC

wouldn't we have seen some hint of discord between himself and it by this point? Doesn't to be "up against" something mean to be in opposition to it?

Are you sure he isn't a PART of it? :shrug:

[Taverner]

19. No - he's trying to as much good as he can, despite the risks

Granted, I don't think he's always making the smartest move, and I do think he also wants his reward like everyone else...

[Truth2Tell]

23. I think he believes, like the rest of the neolibs,

that the American Empire is a benevolent force and not necessarily in need of major downsizing. I don't think he's ever been anti-militarism. So he may be trying to do as much good as he can - as he sees it - but I fear his definition of "good" isn't all that different from that of Robert Gates or George Bush Sr or the rest of them.

[LostInAnomie]

16. Hahaha... nope.

Most people don't really give a shit.

Sad statement about our society or not, it sure as hell ain't going to break Obama.

[Truth2Tell]

18. But they care about the economy.

And the economy is NEVER going "recover" unless we make systemic changes including unwinding the war machine.

[KamaAina]

21. Afghanistan was the tombstone of the Soviet Union

and if Obama ends up losing to Caribou Barbie because of it, it'll be ours, too. :cry: