Endless War category archive
Missing the Point 0
Michael in Norfolk delivers himself of an epic rant about how our media is missing the point. A tidbit:
Click the link for the rest.
Pressing for War, Reprise 0
While on the topic, Gwynne Dyer offers an historical perspective on the roots of Islamic radicalism. Her article provides a context sadly lacking from dis coarse discourse.
Those Who Ignore History . . . . 0
A Random Memory:
I remember standing outside my workplace in the smoking area (it was right outside the back door and, yes, I freed myself from that addiction over a decade ago, thank heavens) with my boss at the time (he was, by the way, a really good boss and a pleasure to work for), a veteran army NCO who, among other things, had participated in “drug interdiction” efforts in Central America.
He was enthusing over President George the Worst’s proposed war in Irag, saying that he was glad “there is a Texan in the White House.”
All I could say in reply was, “I have a bad feeling about this.”
And the Moral of the Story Is . . . . 0
Writing at the Des Moines Register, Afgan war veteran Sophia-Helene Mees de Tricht says that there’s a lesson to be learned, if only we would learn it.
But more to the point, this was never a war that could be won. Even as we fought it, we weren’t sure what the goal was. I grew up a lot the day I realized that we were there because we as a nation lashed out in anger and pain, and we’ve been stuck ever since. Ending this cycle of violence, a direct result of our tenuous occupation of that country, is the right thing to do.
War and Mongers of War 0
In the great majority of the bloviating about the chaos accompanying the American withdrawal from Afghanistan, I see a failure to acknowledge that this occupation was doomed from the git-go. Delaying the withdrawal would have served only to delay the chaos, not to prevent it.
Nor do I see much acknowledgement from those well-paid talking heads that President George W. Bush created this mess by choosing to stage a long term occupation, as opposed to simply rooting out Osama bin Laden (who was a Saudi hiding in Afghanistan, not an Afghani) and then going home. Nor do I see sufficient acknowledgement of the previous Federal Executive’s role in setting the stage for what’s happening now.
I fear that too much of our punditry views war in much they same way as they view politics: as a game for their amusement and their ratings, as grist for their talking points.
War is not a game. War is unpredictability and death and suffering and capriciousness and chaos.
I find it galling when well-paid stuffed suits sit safely in their luxurious abodes thousands of miles away from danger and say to others, “Suffer more so that we are not embarrassed.”
This does not mean that I have any sympathy for the Taliban, nor does it mean that I have no concern for the threat they pose to their own people. They are Afghanistan’s religious right (perhaps more inimical than our own religious right, but not by much), but we have seen that we cannot magically make them go away through force of arms. Twenty years of futile death have proved that.
President Biden is not responsible for our failure in Afghanistan. Rather, he is to be commended for having the courage to bring it to an end.
Those We Ignore History . . . 0
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s Gene Collier reflects on the failure of the United States to learn from experience, whether it be the experience of Alexander the Great, the British Empire, the Soviet Union, or even itself. A snippet:
Could it?
Oh, sure.
We’re allergic to learning. See the virus. See the climate.
“Staying Longer Won’t Solve Anything” 0
David takes what I find a sane and balanced look at events in Afghanistan. (Short commercial at the end.)
We could stay and keep failing, or we could leave.
History Matters 0
Americans seem to have short memory spans.
Joe Biden is not to blame for what’s happening in Afghanistan today, regardless of what you might be hearing on your telly vision.
George W. Bush and Dick Cheney started this folly, and theirs is the responsibility and the blame.
They opened the can.
They own the worms.
Jim Wright has more.
All That Was Old Is New Again 0
PolitialProf sees parallels between the conclusions of two of America’s Great and Glorious Patriotic Wars for a Lie, one coming to a close today and another that ended half a century ago. A nugget:
This argument has a very real appeal. It is undoubtedly the case that what the Taliban are going to do to Afghanistan’s women is beyond brutal. Whatever else US intervention did, it changed the status of lots of Afghani women for the better. What’s coming is almost certainly beyond imagination.
The thing is, you know what twenty years of US intervention did towards building a stable, non-Taliban Afghan government? Virtually nothing.
The Lies of the Land 0
At the San Francisco Chronicle, David Morrell argues that Donald Trump’s big lie is not the first to bedevil (at least some of) the American people. Here’s a bit:
From my experience, the lies surrounding the Jan. 6 insurrection are no less blatant, no less absurd and no less grotesque than those that fueled the Vietnam War more than a half-century ago.
He was there in the command structure, not in combat, and he saw the lies being crafted first hand.
I was eligible for the draft back then. I knew that the Vietnamese War was, at best, a mistake and that my friends and I were subject to being drafted and sent to die for, at best, a mistake.
But, even then, I did not realize how big the lie was.
History Matters 0
At the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Dan Simpson tries to draw some lessons from America’s war in Afghanistan. A snippet; follow the link for the full piece:
Sacrifices on the Altar of the Fool’s Errand 0
I get that there will be wailing and gnashing of teeth about President Biden’s committing to withdraw from Afghanistan. And I share Bob Cesca’s fear that the Taliban will rise again and his concern that the Taliban’s holding power next door to Pakistan, which has nuclear weapons, is disquieting.
Mongers of war, believers that the sword is the ultimate solution to every problem, fans of false macho, and manufacturers of weaponry will wail and gnash their teeth. But, frankly, after twenty years, what have we accomplished? An endless running-in-place.
Zilch, nada, nothing.
We should sacrifice no more lives on the altar of pretending that it was not a fool’s errand from the git-go, and two decades has shown us that we cannot fix Afghanistan’s internal problems from afar, however in need of fixing some of them might be.
This may be President Biden’s bravest act to date–to stand up to the mongers of endless war.
Image via Job’s Anger.
