Monday, April 5, 2010
"....and I'll whisper "no"..."
Down to the business of it, I'm getting on a plane for Afghanistan later this year--presumably to help Hamid Karzai and the Afghan people continue to pretend like they want freedom and not just more free money from U.S. taxpayers.
Six years ago when I was there the first time, I thought that maybe we could change the minds of the Afghan people and help them to realize what a backward and oppressive life they had chosen. But after six more years of dumping billions of U.S. dollars into their infrastructure and economy, the Afghans still would rather smoke opium and oppress one another. The police and army are shamefully corrupt, and the Afghan government makes the U.S. government look like model citizens. We've given them time, money, and shed plenty of blood for them. I could have kept a positive attitude about staying there for a little while longer if this hadn't come out today:
"He said that 'if I come under foreign pressure, I might join the Taliban'," said Farooq Marenai, who represents the eastern province of Nangarhar.
Robert Gibbs reportedly expressed "frustration" at this comment. Instead, I think President Obama and the peacenik congress should have said "Fine. Join them. Just give us 60 days to get all of our troops who keep you alive on a daily basis out of your country. Have a nice life. Oh, and we'll need you to repay the billions of dollars we spent trying to prop up your government. Best of luck!" Most of them campaigned on ending the war anyway. This is the perfect excuse!
I was once an ardent supporter of the Bush Doctrine of "fighting them over there so we don't fight them over here". Karzai's comments should prompt a change we can believe in. Obama and Bush kept saying that we have to stay there so we can stabilize the region. Well, how will we stabilize the region if the people and the government want to embrace the Taliban again? Karzai has no fear of losing U.S. support. He and the Afghan government are playing us for fools. They'll continue to get soldiers killed to preserve their security, and gorge themselves in the trough of U.S. tax dollars that our politicians refuse to stop filling.
Karzai may one day look up and shout "Save me!" And I'll whisper "no".
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4 comments:
I agree with your comment about fighting them over there so we don't fight them here. But I think that when you go abroad fighting for "democracy" this is what you get. What do you do when they express their will at the ballot box and they vote for the same barbaric culture they've had for thousands of years? Do you tell them, "no"?
As far as The Watchmen goes, I thought about that flick the other day and think I will revisit it. Hope you're good and you've got your head on a swivel. Best, RJ
The Ayn Rand Institute attributes the US' failure to establish security in Iraq and Afghanistan to the fact that the US government (both Bush and Obama) are reluctant to fight the militants and are willing to compromise with local swindlers and play with "democracy," which here means the rule of the intolerant, bloodthirsty majority. The US should destroy the militants, not shower money on local bureaucrats. It shouldn't build roads or hospitals for them either. It should also destroy or neutralize all state and non-state sponsors of terrorism (such as Iran) to solve the Iraq and Afghanistan problems.
...and after Iran, we should bomb Saudi Arabia, China, North Korea, Pakistan, Syria, Venezuela.....have I left anyone out?
That's actually an interesting comment, Richard.
But it kind of begs the what-came-first-the-chicken-or-the-egg question: "Did America create its enemies, or did its enemies create America?"
Ponder that one while I go get a coke.
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