Willingly Blind
Nov 29th, 2009 by David Anderson
Because you say, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and know not that your are wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked: Revelation 3:17
I believe that “progressives” or new left (loony left as I prefer) is well described by that classic quote. Even the few steps of common sense shown by the ruling regime in Washington are viewed with distain. The ruling regime has determined that our national interests are served by not kicking the Afghan people in the teeth.
Human Rights have not mattered much to this regime. The profess a doctrine of realism. They make no protest to speak of to China. They make deals with the Sudan. They ignore the crushing of the opposition in Iran until they were drug into the discussion by the rest of the world. There is hardly a mention of the conditions of Taliban ruled Afghanistan. The only Russian crack down they protested was that of a few journalists and the same is true of the People’s Republic of Korea. They are insular in their focus. There foreign policy is about pleasing those who they look up to in Europe and not about improving the lives of the oppressed, the destitute, and ordinary of the world who yearn for a better future. They think that pleasing governments is the objective of foreign policy.
Even this is not enough for Levin and Obey as well as the crowd they represent. They seek to undermine the generals who turned around Iraq in their effort to win this victory. The fact that two and three years ago that they were completely wrong is no deterrent to their making exactly the same predictions. They offer only defeat. If we stay the course, we will at least not be defeated. We will muddle along for years until the Afghans get a real government. If we follow McChyrstal’s course, we may win. The far left seems to have a desire to punish America with defeat so any chance at victory is unacceptable. Evil capitalist America is devouring the world’s resources while the 8th century style Taliban is just trying to free the world of colonialism. The problem is that in an election, the Taliban is unpopular and evil. They are the type of people who would blow up schools because they teach girls. They would whip (with real whips) people for listening to music of any kind. They will kill people for following their religious beliefs. They responsible for sheltering a global movement which has killed thousand of Americans and linked with one which has killed millions of people globally. If the left will not support American interests and realism, can they have compassion for the children who will suffer, the women whose lives will be locked away, the Christians who would be killed, the modern muslims who would be targeted for destruction, or the poor who would be robbed of any chance for a better life?
The latest tack is to propose a war tax surcharge which is far in excess of any cost of a troop surge. I have no problem with a dedicated war tax of 1%. Unfortunately, there is no such proposal. It would add 1 to 5 percentage point to income taxes of most taxpayers. There is no proposal to create a trust fund to direct it to the Pentagon. There is no recognition that we are already going to raise the taxes without this proposal in 2011 according to their budget by letting many of the Bush tax cuts expire. They are also proposing a surcharge for health care. They know that returning to 50% top tax rate is economic suicide and unpopular. They want to use the war to either club opponents into supporting redistribution of wealth to bureaucrats or sink the effort to gain victory. The problem is that they refuse to acknowledge the cost of defeat. Even the Europeans recognize that this is the best hope. The threat of an American pullout is a greater threat to them. The attacks would first go to Europe. Once the methods are perfected, they will attack here. The only way not to see the recent past is to be willing blind to it.
The leftist in our ruling regime and Congress think that they are wise, insightful, and compassionate. The truth is that they are ignorant, blind, and cold. It is the duty of every right thinking American to expose their fraud. The lives of our servicepeople, the Afghans, our European allies, and even our own peace at home is in the balance.
I am pretty sure that we are going to have to try to stabilize the Afghan Taliban with an eye to keeping Pakistan Taliban under control. Key words: Pakistan’s nuclear weapons and who gets access to them.
The situation is a mess over there, no doubt, but your analysis misses the big picture.
We do need to bring the world to this problem in shared responsibility just as we are doing with Iran in lining up China and Russia to that end. That was quite a trick considering the relationships between those nations and Iran.
Iran is pissed that we have united the world against their secret nuke program and have boasted today that they are moving forward anyway. But at least we will meet that threat as a world united.
America needs to do this with Afghanistan and Pakistan.
We don’t need the world. We need to follow up on our own resolve. The rest of the world is welcome, but the situation got worse because we farmed it out to NATO and others. The U. S. can’t depend upon the world for its own security nor does it have to.
I am reluctant to commit more troops to a country devoid of any reality. Karzai is the Mayor of Kabul and that is about it. I want to hear the plan to see how we keep Al Qaeda in check but not spend endless money and valuable lives against the Taliban.
I know the Taliban if back in power will allow Al Qaeda to operate with total freedom but I don’t see Afghanistan as a worthwhile effort.
Mike Protack
I am reluctant to commit more troops to a country devoid of any reality.
You should be reluctant to commit any troops anywhere. If people like yourself had been more reluctant to commit troops to Iraq we might be successfully out of Afghanistan by now.
I know the Taliban if back in power will allow Al Qaeda to operate with total freedom but I don’t see Afghanistan as a worthwhile effort.
You are very confused.
For once, I agree with Noman. Afghanistan is a very complicated country. It is a feudal federal republic. We cannot act as if Karzai is the only power. We have to do what we did in Iraq, which is work with the tribal leaders and the central government. It is about our national security and the peace of the world. Precipitous withdraw will end the Pax Americana and plunge the world into eventual disorder as terror cells grow and cause instability in at least 70 nations. The picture of the next 20 years will be one of terrorism, civil war, crackdowns, and oppression. First to go after Afghanistan will be Yemen, then Pakistan, then Somalia and Sudan will be ramped up as bases. There will be increased instability in Africa and the Middle East. Europe will be flooded with refugees. Among these mostly decent people will be terror cells. Europe will be in flames in 10 years. The Philippines will suffer terror attacks. Indonesia will be under assault. Some Island in that chain will become a base of instability in Asia. Eventually, they will become powerful enough to infiltrate us from all sides.
We will have to fight for our lives and freedom at far greater costs than a few hundred brave casualties and 30 billion dollars. President Obama is right. We have to win this one. We have to knock out this operation. Even stalemating it for 10 years is a victory because it stops it from the above and eventually defeats it. Withdraw allows it to claim victory which will flood it with recruits. The one thing keeping some from joining is that many believe it is a lost cause against a determined U. S.
In retrospect, some believe they challenged us too early. They gained a lot of ground until 9/11. If they had waited, they could have had several gulf states on the ropes, Egypt, Algeria, and caused instability in Indonesia and the Philippines. If they cause us to give up, it will show that they were right. Americans are too weak and will give up at a few loses. They will grow impatient in a protracted fight. I am not in agreement. I am in this for victory.
Defeating Communism took 45 years of determination. Defeating radical Islam will take at least 20. That is just the way it is. The longer we dither, the longer and more costly it will be.
There are over 1-billion muslims in the world. I don’t know how many of them are ‘radical,’ but if we were able to put Afghanistan into orbit, there’d still be potential terrorists in Egypt, Indonesia, Sudan, Saudi Arabia..need I go on?
We need to quit wasting our time in Afghanistan, and focus on protecting our own nation. My guess is that a terrorist in a fishing boat could bring a bomb right up the Delaware River, undetected; or, through the hinterlands of the Maine/Quebec border; or Mexico. It’s time to wake-up.
There are not many radicals in the U. S. Where do they train? Where is the strategic operations headquaters? They put them in the mountians in the stan region for a reason. That reason is so they can be ignored while they train, build the bombs, and gather real and counterfiet money to launch operations around the globe unmolested. We have to tie them down then defeat them as a viable organized force where they are. If we do not then it would be like trying to clear a house of roachs while protecting the nests from being sprayed.
We need to kill the roaches at the nests. Afghanistan is one of the nests. If it is not controlled, nuke armed Pakistan risks becoming one. If that happens, all of the border security that we can muster will not matter. They will only need to be successful once with a balloon sending parts to a cell which collects them across the border then assembles and explodes a dirty bomb or far worse.
We need to understand that we are not just in a war, but a generational struggle for the dignity and liberty of humanity.
There are not many radicals in the U. S. Where do they train?
Where did the 911 pilots ‘train?’ The United States. Also, how much ‘training’ do you need to strap on a bomb and set it off in a subway?