Afghanistan

“If, particularly in the past ten years, you have become angry at our U.S. Government’s seemingly inability to manage money and assets, particularly in programs where countries who hate us are benefiting from U.S. mismanagement of assets, reading the rest of this article is going to really upset you“.

I have heard it said that “War is too important a matter to be left to the Generals”.

They tell us we’re dropping about $10 billion a month in Afghanistan so we can catch that Bin Laden guy...but eventually, we’re gonna catch him, and as soon as we do you can imagine that folks will be wondering why we’re still over there – and I gotta tell ya, I’m one of those people.

I mean, we’re over here talking about how we're so broke that we have no choice but to cut a couple of billion from heat assistance for the poor, and a billion-and-a-half from the Social Security operations budget, and money from food stamps and childcare assistance and tornado forecasting in Alabama…but every single month, just as regular as clockwork, we seem to be able to find another $10 billion to spend in Afghanistan, even as we have an economy that could badly use another round of truly productive stimulus.

And I don’t think y’all even realize just how much money $10 billion really is – but today we’re gonna see if we can’t fix that with a bit of a thought exercise.

Imagine if we set up a program that took that Afghanistan money and spent it right here at home for a year or two – and it was spent in the form of a lottery, where we stimulate the larger economy, help fix the mortgage crisis, and create a more energy-independent nation, all at the same time.

I got all we need except a catchy name; with that in mind let’s move on to the description of how the Happy Super Fun Day Peace Lotto Stimulus Thingy works.

Another stupid war
All teh gayz fault
Show lies

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What went through my mind that morning nine years ago probably mirrored what most of my fellow Americans felt. Confusion. Fear. Helplessness. Outrage. Fury. The incident inspired a primal reaction in me I had not felt since I was a child learning how to cope with life's hard lessons. But ever so slowly, those destabilizing emotions faded and I was able to place those events in their proper context. Others, however, have held onto those feelings like a favorite shirt that is tattered beyond repair, but they've worn it so long they can't bear to part with it.

The attacks of 9/11 demanded a response. Someone had to pay, and pay dearly. Since then, we've conquered and occupied two countries, bringing about the deaths of hundreds of thousands and the destruction of cities, towns and villages. And we've sacrificed thousands more American lives and hundreds of billions in wealth squandered. But when will the debt of anger be stamped "paid in full"?

There are a whole lot of reasons we need to get out of Afghanistan, but I can't help but be terribly concerned about the plight of Afghani women left to the Taliban’s devices. Last week Time Magazine’s cover picture was of an eighteen year old girl whose nose had been cut off not to spite her face, but for running away from abusive in-laws. How bad women’s lives have been under the Taliban, indeed, how bad they are in any of the places where harsh Sharia law applies, is hardly hot news. On the other hand, I’ve never seen someone whose nose has been cut off. It’s sobering.

I used to rail a good deal against religion because of the many bad things that are done in its name. Then I read Niall Ferguson’s The War of the World and realized that it’s people who do bad things and, if they don’t justify it by religion, they will justify it by some other means. Or not. Maybe St. Augustine was right. Maybe we’re just bad.

Or maybe it’s the men who are bad.

Sam Stein's post on Huffington Post calls into question whether or not I'd like to see the President come to North Carolina. The post is well intentioned, I am sure, but my comments are taken a bit of context and blown up to a bigger story. The truth is:

I would welcome President Obama to North Carolina.

I would take the opportunity to thank him for endorsing legislation that would help small businesses and save 4,500 teacher jobs in North Carolina. I would also speak with him about ending the War in Afghanistan, and how Washington as a whole isn't responding to the needs of ordinary Americans.

What a difference nine (and counting) years make. Sort of like stepping through the proverbial looking glass: it turns out that nothing is as it seems. Good wars turn out to be bad ones; a righteous cause is revealed to be baseless; we sacrifice on the altar of our presumption the very people whom we say we are trying to save, whose hearts and minds we say we aspire to win. Oh, we swear up and down that they matter, but they don’t. Not really. Otherwise we would have probably made a greater effort to stop killing what the now disgraced General McChrystal characterized as an “amazing” number of them.

When asked by PBS Newshour what General Stanley McChrystal could have been thinking when he mouthed off to Rolling Stone reporter Michael Hastings, retired generals Dan McNeill and Merrill McPeak appeared genuinely baffled. They alluded to McChrystal’s no-nonsense, gruff and blunt manner and pointed out that he had evidently spent insufficient time in situations requiring tact and diplomacy. However, it was pretty clear that they were not convinced that this was the whole story. McPeak, who appeared stunned throughout, referred to McChrystal twice as a “Warrior,” hesitating a moment before he uttered the word as though he wasn’t sure how that word, so loaded, would play in the modern world outside gaming circles.

I have no doubt that McChrystal is a Warrior . . . one with a capital W. Joe Klein describes him as an extraordinary soldier, but one who is pathologically incapable of not speaking his mind. However, I’m not sure McChrystal . . . or it . . . is that simple.

This morning's Wilmington Star-News headline "Casualties to ratchet up..." commenting on the ongoing war in Afghanistan was pathetically cold. Perhaps that's because so few of us are making any personal sacrifice in the conduct of this endless debacle ... and because the numbers of dead and wounded mean little to many readers.