Afghanistan is at the tip of the iceburg about what is wrong with the US, diplomatically, militarily, and economically. Ironic that a country with so little to contribute to the US economy (other than Heroin) should nonetheless be at the center of the US efforts militarily for decades. What did the Afghans ever do to us to deserve the destruction of their country? (BTW tank picture is left over Russian tank from decades ago).
Ok, Sec of State Danielski will pontificate about what is wrong with Afghanistan. First, even though the Iranian revolution was boiling over at the same time, fueled by Islamist extremists who were popular because of their opposition to our man in Tehran, the presumed Shah, who was put in power by the popular movement called the American CIA, even so, we didnt connect the dots with the USSR invasion of Afghanistan. the soviets said they were entering Afghanistan at the invite of the Afghan socialist leader, but of course, the Soviets didnt want any Islamic extremists to gain power. The soviets had many muslim soviet republics to deal with, like the province of Chechnya. Instead of ignoring the soviet invasion of Afhanistan, we helped arm the Mujahedeen, the holy warriors, who were a combination of warlord kinda nationalists (although no warload wants a strong Afghan nation so to speak) and future Talliban religious nuts who wanted Afghanistan to return to the glories of the 13th century. We relied on Pakistan to allow us to send arms to these "freedom fighters"(Ronald reagans term) in Pakistan, who would then use mountain paths and donkeys to take the arms into afghanistan (sound familiar?). Pakistan's leader at the time, Benizar Bhutto, wondered out loud if the Americans knew who they were dealing with, because the very groups we were arming were groups opposed to Bhuttos regime in Pakistan. One more time, Bhutto allowed the US to arm the very people who were her enemies, but we must have given her a great deal (arms? loans?) so she put up with it, thinking that these groups had the Soviets to deal with, and Pakistan would only be next (safe for the time being).
Sooooo, the various armed groups that together defy any single description chased the soviets out of Afghanistan, and then turned on each other. At this point, the US left. The Talliban took over almost all of Afghanistan, and i mean, why would the US care, its not like they have oil or anything valuable (other than heroin). Then they sheltered Osama bin Laden, who thinks he is the moral and religious conscience of the Islamic world, and he decides to attack the US in such a way that the US will HAVE to invade Afghanistan, and be defeated just like the Soviets were defeated. However, he goofed: no more cold war. the Talliban dont have any country who will give them surface to air missles and so forth. However, our invasion was different than he planned.
Instead of sending our marines and army all the way around the world to Afghanistan, we left most of them in Iraq, and only a small force in Afghanistan. This worked well for his benefit, because the Talliban can fight effectively a relatively small US and UN force. Meanwhile, Afghanistan was a side war, received little support. Afghanistan has the worlds second smallest energy footprint, meaning that the only energy Afghans have is their own muscle. They farm irrigated fields if they are lucky, the best crop is poppies, for heroin. War lords get rich, farmers barely live. Malnutrition, infant motality, life expectancy is horrible. When I die and am reborn, if I am born in afghanistan, somebody please put a gun to my head. Talk about abject human misery. You think we have bad health care in this country, try living in 13th century Afghanistan, were even childbirth is often a fatal condition. Remember Yorick of Kent, Steve Martin's routine about medieval doctors, well Yorick has a thriving practice in Afghanistan.
So the Afghan people get caught up in the cold war, which is a disaster for any country other than the US. Vietnamese nationalism got caught up in the cold war, so did Cuba's revolution (they were marxists but not alligned with USSR during the revolution, in fact, USSR didnt like Castro, he was too extreme, his wars of liberation threatened the peace of the Mutually assured destruction of the cold war stand off, thats why Che left Cuba to do his own thing in Bolivia, without the blessing of the USSR, and only a wink from China).
Still with me...ok, the present. The Talliban are back, because the country is just as god awful as it has ever been. the US invasion didnt help the lives the most Afghans, so what do they care if we are there, or if the Talliban are? Their lives are still shit. So we are now increasing the troops. Which should work in the short run. But how long do we plan to stay there? Occupying a medieval country ? While we still need to keep troops in Iraq?
How long can our army and marine corps take this? Joining the military means possibly being abroad for most of your tour. Some units have come home for one year, but even one year is too long for our troop needs. We can hardly afford to send troops home for a one year rotation. Troops are deployed for well over a year at a time in Afghanistan and Iraq.
What about our equipment? Tanks, armored vehicles, even the M4 auto rifles, are wearing out. I just read we have 400,000 M4's in operation - is that ALL? Should our troops have a better rifle than one designed for european warfare? I mean, our troops are in the sand and dirt in Iraq and Afghanistan - we are not fighting a European war with Russia.
How long can this continue until our army and marine corps wears out? Can you imagine the psychological toll its taken on our troops? Meanwhile, back home, Rush Limbaugh has just become a judge on the Miss America pageant - is our country schizophrenic? What we are expecting of our troops, their condition, is in contrast to the shallowness of our culture back home. We have little connection with out troops, only those whose loved ones are over there.
I visited Section 60 of Arlington National Cemetary, in part, to feel our loss as a nation. I wanted to see the loved ones visiting the fresh graves. I chased down flowers blowing away in the wind, some the relatives thought I was one of them, putting back flowers on graves, trying to make them stay put despite the wind. I tried to film it but I couldnt talk, i was so choked up.
I am disillusioned with my government. We need to somehow connect with the Afghan people, to make their lives improved: health care, clean water, nutrition, security for their children and for shopping at the market place. I dont think an Islamic nation is necessary bad, after all, there is a Jewish State of Israel, and it is a democracy, and 20% of their citizens are non jews. a religious state is not a problem in itself, the muslims I know would like a government as good as their people. The problem is EXTREMISM - what are the causes of it? We need counter insurgency to pinpoint eliminating the causes of extremist movements - we work from the village up, connecting to the people.
Can we do that in Afghanistan? Yes, but it would take time and effort. We need to focus on our non military efforts in Afghanistan. Meanwhile, back home, unemployment is up to 10%. Can we focus on Afghanistan (or Iraq) when we have developmental needs back home? How can we afford these wars given out broken economy?
We are now experiencing foreign nationals LEAVING the united states, especially once their education here is done. Why? Because THINGS ARE BETTER ELSEWHERE. You come from Nigeria, get your PhD, and stay in US? hell no. Go back to Nigeria - it has oil, democracy is almost in place, you can make it better there than here in the US. These days, Barack Obama's father would have come here and left as soon as he could, because things are better for Kenyan PhD' in Kenya than they are here.
I dont think the Democrats, or the Republicans get this. I have heard that the tea baggers (my god, what a term, do they know what that means, are they that clueless?) are challenging Republicans in primaries. What is it they want? Does anyone see the impending collapse of our would be economic and military empire? Or has it already collapsed, but we are blind to it? What are the symptoms of collapse? Huge national debt that cant be paid off? A military that is constantly deployed overseas? Military equipment worn out? american unemployed? The best selling american car is the camaro, hardly fuel efficient, and the government keeps gas prices lower than market - at what point does gas go up to market price, and the economy totally falls off? You think 1929 is impossible? We just avoided it, by going into debt to bail out the banks and wall street - that's it, we dont have any bail out money left, the debt is too large, if the banks and wall street break again, that is the end of the line, there is no longer an economy in the US, and other countries will start failing too. Right now, China almost owns us, and if the economy breaks again, there wont be anything left for China to collect.
And, we are increasing troop levels in Afghanistan (which is what this post is about) without the money to pay for it, and that wont solve the security problem in Afghanistan for the long run. Its a short run fix.
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