Only a small number of Al Qaeda affiliates, sheltered by the Taliban, planned 9/11, after all. It was not the whole country. That Bush2 business, "You're either with us or against us," was dumb as hell.
Why kill a lot of innocent people to get a few bad guys? Of course, we did much worse in Iraq.
But now President Obama says we are gradually drawing down our soldiers there. Oh, man, I don't know about this.
We abandoned the Afghans once before, after we helped them defeat the Russians. Are we abandoning them again? Are we leaving the good guys to take the heat?
How do we make it all right? How do we make it up to the families, here and there, of people who have been killed and maimed in this stupid war? How do we make the world better, not worse, these days?
I don't know. Normally, I would trust Obama. He's a smart guy, and he's our guy. But he has the burden of politics and trying to please various factions at home. He has to get along with the loony, bloodthirsty, power-mad, delusional, ideologically driven Republicans.
I don't envy him that.
I think we are damned if we do and damned if we don't. At least this way, we are going to focus more energy on nation building here at home.
BTW, I don't see anything wrong with nation building. Isn't that what we did after WWII? Didn't it result in firm allies, stable economies and functioning democracies in Japan and Germany?
What is wrong with nation building?
I think we should build more, starting at home. But I don't think we should neglect the rest of the world.
Also BTW, I think we need a much bigger stimulus package to bring our own economy up to where it belongs. More deficit spending. That is what got us out of the Great Depression.
The GOP is wrong about this, too.
-- Roger
© Copyright 2011, Roger R. Angle
Greetings From Afghanistan, Send More Ammo: Dispatches from Taliban Country
No comments:
Post a Comment