Here They Go Again

Apparently our senior-most politicos simply are incapable of learning . . . or perhaps they just love a good war, especially if they are not the ones being shot at or bombed. Our senior Vietnam Warmonger, John McCain, accompanied by his very own Tonto, Lindsay Graham, are insisting that we go to war in Syria.  Why, oh, just cuz . . . well, actually cuz Asaad turned his very own chemical industry on his own people—well technically I guess they are no longer HIS people. They're sort of anti-his people.

And we have everyone running about yelling about bright red  lines having been crossed. Oh, and the Brits and the French, not to mention the Israelis and the Turks are all running about without their heads yelling “War, War, we want War!!”

The Russkies, of course, are adamantly opposed to war, and they are ungracious enough to remind us about Iraq, and even comparing Obama to The Shrub. Way to go Vlad. . . you really know how to hurt a guy.

But I keep wondering. What is there about that part of the UN Charter  concerning non-interference with the internal affairs of its member states, that we all don’t understand?  In what way, I wonder, would bombing/invading, or otherwise warring against Syria be in any way different from the Shrub’s patently illegal invasion of Iraq? Yes, Asaad used chemical weapons. So, what? He’s using bullets, bombs, tear gas, probably flame throwers—in short he’s emptying his arsenal at his people in an attempt to remain relevant.  His pathetic attempts may not, probably will not work, but it seems to me that’s for his people to work out. I continue not to understand why it’s ok to shoot your people, or run over them with tanks, or bomb them from the air, but it’s not ok to gas them.  Maybe we don’t get this thing of DEATH. When folks become DEAD, it really no longer matters how they became DEAD. They no longer exist (no, they don’t enter heaven, or hell. They just no longer exist). So, why do we care how they came to be DEAD? Yes, Asaad is a 12^th century thug, but so are many of his enemies.  Is Putin really much better than Asaad? No??? Yet, I don’t see us playing war games with him.

So, we really need to consider sanctions, perhaps, but not bullets, or drones, or other war toys. If we cannot get the UN to enter as a global force (enter Mr. Putin) then maybe we shouldn’t play George Bush, once again.

Perhaps we need to put Mr. McCain back in a jet fighter, with Mr. Graham as his copilot, and let them play their Vietnam Redux game, but all by themselves. There will be no real winners in Syria. But let us not be one of the losers there.

Afghanistan

So, we watched last night. The Prez made his case, convincing enough to those who are open to being convinced. The jackasses of course will never be convinced by anything he says. I noted several things.
1. He was, as always, brilliant at saying what had to be said. He was speaking to a tough audience, some of whom seemed actually to be dozing off—odd I thought.
2. I believe he is correct in asserting that both Afghanistan and Pakistan are places on our globe that are potentially dangerous to the United States. But then so is Somalia, and a few other places that are not really nations, more spots of dirt on the globe open to any thugs or robber gangs who have enough arms to grab some the territory for their own.
3. Fundamentally, I believe that nation-building is a chimera. It is likely never to happen in Afghanistan, Somalia, or western Pakistan in our lifetimes. These are places deeply rooted in the 14th century. Democracy isn’t as high on their agenda as getting enough rice or potatoes to eat for the next meal. Also, they are sufficiently befuddled by their views of their religion that they have no concept of an open society with democratic values. We are surely wasting our time, money and blood.
So, basically, I think the faster we can execute a quick march out of Afghanistan, the better. Having said that, however, I am still awaiting some pronouncement from the Prez on the subject of the aftermath. That is, what do we plan to do, perhaps what does the world plan to do about terrorism once we all leave the Afghans and the Pakistanis to themselves? If the Taliban regroup and come roaring back in Kabul and they allow Osama (remember him, that guy who Bush allowed to escape??)to begin organizing terror again, what will we do—begin viewing Afghanistan as a free fire zone, as we did in Vietnam (remember Vietnam?)? We had this brief period after 9/11 when the entire world, even for heaven’s sake Iran, was aligned with us. We could have organized a world-wide effort to eradicate Islamic terrorism, mainly because it was in everyone’s best interest, including most of the Islamic world, to get rid of thugs like bin Laden. But no, our Neo-Con ship of fools decided to attack one of the Islamic nations uninvolved in 9/11, just because they thought they could. And then they forgot about the guys who brought us 9/11, and they allowed the world-wide support to evaporate.
So, now of course, all the idiots in our nation who acted as cheerleaders for Shrub’s gang of thugs are now decrying Obama’s considered decision.
I continue to hope that he is correct in his latest decision. I know that, unlike Bush, he at least used his considerable brain in reaching that decision. But his decision is a high risk one. Of course, so would a quick march out of Afghanistan. Remember that last helicopter leaving Vietnam?

Bombing Civilians

Watching the Bill Moyers Journal last evening was a scary proposition. The subject: bombing civilians, and why that never, ever works. The bombing campaign at issue is the Afghan-Pakistan border, where our President has apparently authorized continued bombing of “terrorist” hideouts in that wild region not governed by anyone, except maybe the Taliban. The point of the discussion was that, all the evidence we have, dating back at least to WW I, is that bombing of civilians never works to bring the civilian population to its knees. Specifically, to paraphrase Winston Churchill, when the Nazis were busily bombing London and other major population centers in England, that “we will fight them >>> everywhere” suggests that not every population could be cowed by heavy bombing. Churchill, in fact, failed to heed his own admonition, by ordering the same type of heavy bombardment of German cities.

President Johnson ordered continuous bombing of North Vietnam population centers, on McNamara’s recommendation. That resulted, eventually, in America being discharged from the Vietnamese peninsula, returning home with its tail between its legs, but not before we lost some 50,000 brave young men and women.

In the Middle East, our bombing campaigns seem to have actually expanded the roster of Islamic “terrorists” willing to blow themselves up in order to kill Americans and their allies. Whole organizations now exist that never existed before we intervened—Qaida in Iraq, Taliban in Pakistan are newbies, thanks to our campaigns.

But what gave me the greatest pause was the thought that President Obama is now committing himself, and us by the way, to an expansion of a war in Afghanistan and maybe Pakistan, that we cannot win-- Vietnam Redux. We are talking 60,000 more troops. The Soviets had three times that many and were summarily dismissed from Afghanistan. We seem to be embarking on a redo of Vietnam, only this time under Obama’s watch. I think he’s too smart for that, but he may be too smart by half. Sometimes, smart people cannot believe that they will fail to succeed where others have indeed failed.  We are being sucked into this spider web, and we may soon be unable to extricate ourselves. Given that we have a few other problems, like a collapsed global economy, it seems sensible to me that we might reconsider our course of action.

Maybe it is time for President Obama to call a halt to military actions in that region and call for some kind of global discussion on what it is we are trying to accomplish, and whether that goal is achievable. Maybe, we need to go beyond our current crop of military advisers to being in some fresh brains, i.e., brains not already corrupted by the Bush doctrines.

Couldn’t hurt.