Kipling Haunts Obama’s Afghan War

Kipling Haunts Obama’s Afghan War by Ray McGovern

" Without batting an eyelash, Brzezinski noted that within three months the war in Afghanistan will be the "longest war in U.S. history," and warned that the United States could be "bogged down there for another decade or so." At the same time, he argued, the world impact of an early U.S. departure "would be utterly devastating." "

Now try to imagine a soldier on the battlefield in Afghanistan today, hearing that his leaders in Washington will not consider a departure because it would be utterly devastating.

That is: if he gets killed or crippled tomorrow, it will be "no problem" because he died or will live the rest of his life as a cripple so our departure wouldn't be utterly devasting.

Excuse me - but would our departure have been utterly devasting if we never arrived in the first place? Of course it couldn't be devasting - because there would be nothing to undo. So what he's saying is that undoing what we've done would be devastating. Doesn't that make anyone think that we should revisit what we did in the first place?

Referring to Jeff Huber's article "Our mission in Afghanistan has no bearing on our national security or vital national interests. If we really wanted to root out the source of the 9/11 attacks, we’d invade and occupy Germany, home of the Hamburg cell where the attacks actually originated. But wait; we’re already occupying Germany. We have been since the end of World War II. That didn’t prevent 9/11 from happening, did it? Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the supposed mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, was in the Philippines when he proposed the plan to Osama bin Laden. We occupied the Philippines for a long time, but they kicked us out. Most of the 9/11 thugs came from Saudi Arabia, who don’t want us in their country, and kissing the Saudis’ keister is our virtual national pastime."


Bill