The Unkindest Death of All
There’s anguish today on all fronts.
BP is still wrecking an ecosystem; Protesters are wrecking Toronto; and Politicians are wrecking the world. And not only that -
Now the guys out in South Asia – Afghanistan to be precise – are really wondering just what it’s all about.
After ten years, President Hamid Karzai wants to do a deal with the Taliban.
That’s nothing new really, but – this morning I read in The New York Times, that “Karzai is giving Afghanistan back to the Taliban, and he is opening up the old schisms.” That’s a quote from a man named Rehman Oghly, an Uzbek member of the Afghan Parliament and once a member of an anti-Taliban militia. “If he wants to bring in the Taliban, and they begin to use force, then we will go back to civil war and Afghanistan will be split.”
Hmmm…Afghanistan being “split” is nothing new either.
What is new, is that these days, some American soldiers are asking what the heck they’re over there for and is it worth the risk. We don’t know much about what Canadian soldiers are saying…but it can’t be a whole lot different. Almost a decade and still the same old scene only worse. As one U.S. soldier told the Times: “If we are here for a year and don’t fire one round, I’m happy. I’ve got two boys waiting for me that I want to go back home and be a dad to.” (New York Times)
I’m sure that our Canadian soldiers – like their American buddies – would rather stay in the barracks than go out on patrol. It’s dangerous out there man and life is fragile.
Soldiers have families and they’ed rather be at home fighting the oil catastrophe than waiting for a roadside bomb to blow them up. Afghanistan just isn’t worth it.
Of course anyone with half a brain has been saying this for years. But leaders need body counts; they need soldiers to get killed and kids need to be orphaned, just to prove it was all worth it.
Karzai is apparently tired of war. (That’s why his life is fragile)
The head of the U.S. military doesn’t like this situation one bit (after all, he needs a job). ” “It has the potential to really tear this country apart,” Admiral Mullen said in an interview. “That’s not what we are going to permit.”
I wonder what Lyndon Johnson would say if he were still walking around.
I just watched Barack Obama discussing Afghanistan after the G20 conference. He wants the elected government to be able to stand on their own some day so they can resist the Taliban. The Taliban are the group that let AlQaeda perform their training manuevers in Afghanistan before the 911 attack.
One question no one ever asks is “What does AlQaeda and the Taliban have against the US that causes the US to spend billions to defend against them?
My answer may shock you. It is not that the US gives equal rights to women. It is not that many in the US are Christian. The biggest thing thats sticks in the craw with these people is the US support for Israel’s occupation of Palestine. And the scariest part of all is that no one the US media is allowed to bring this up.
I recall vividly, my first visit to the Middle East in 1968.
There was no Islamic Fundamentalism.