The Scrivener's Diary

It is Monday night, November 30, 2009, as this is being written, and President Obama has apparently committed to sending tens of thousands more troops to  Afghanistan. This is a  terribly flawed decision, and absolutely no good can come of it.

Instead of sending more troops, the United States should just bring all the troops home now from both Afghanistan and Iraq.

There is a huge difference between defeating a country in war and conquering a country. The US did not find it difficult to drive the Taliban out of state power with military action.

But conquering Afghanistan, imposing a new form of government on it from the outside is a different task.

As Michael Moore in his heartfelt open letter to President Obama says:

There’s a reason they don’t call Afghanistan the “Garden State” (though they probably should, seeing how the corrupt President Karzai, whom we back, has his brother in the heroin trade raising poppies). Afghanistan’s nickname is the “Graveyard of Empires.”

Graveyard Of Empires Indeed!.

Moore goes on to say:

If you don’t believe it, give the British a call. I’d have you call Genghis Khan but I lost his number. I do have Gorbachev’s number though. It’s + 41 22 789 1662. I’m sure he could give you an earful about the historic blunder you’re about to commit.

Moore is referring to an article in the website of The Hill Newspaper by Jordan Fabian called Gorbachev to Obama: ‘Prepare the ground for withdrawal’ in Afghanistan. Gorbachev says that what’s needed is “reconciliation in the Afghan society.”

Closer to the truth is the assessment of former CIA agent Robert Bear, as reported in the Huffington Post. The Huffington Post says this:

In the latest video from the Brave New Foundation’s “Rethink Afghanistan” project, former CIA agent Robert Bear says that what the U.S. faces when it comes to the Afghan insurgency isn’t terrorism, but a war of national resistance.

“The people that want their country liberated from the West have nothing to do with Al Qaeda,” Baer says. “They simply want us gone because we’re foreigners, and they’re rallying behind the Taliban because the Taliban are experienced, effective fighters.”

Because these insurgents see the U.S. as a colonial force, Baer says, they are unlikely to ever rally around the Afghan national army the U.S. is looking to establish.

Despite all the talk about “helping” the Afghan people throw off the yoke of oppression and subjugation, the United States is a hated foreign occupier supporting a corrupt and unpopular regime.

That is why Matthew Hoh, former Marine captain and foreign service director in Afghanistan, resigned from his position last month, October 2009. Here is his letter of resignation explaining his reasons in detail.

President Obama’s supporters like to compare him to President Roosevelt and President Lincoln. Actually, he reminds me much more of Lyndon Johnson, whom I remember well. Johnson initially was popular among moderates and those to the left of moderates because of the civil rights legislation and the enactment of Medicare. But Johnson, at the end of his one-term presidency, was unable to appear in public without massive protests. He was hated and vilified by his former supporters.

That’s because when he ran for president, he promised he would not send American troops to die in a fight in southeast Asia, and he broke that promise.

He had run on the Kennedy program, a “peace” program, against the very hawkish and very conservative Barry Goldwater. He won that election by the largest landslide in American history.

Yet by the end of his presidency, he was hated and reviled. As a matter of fact, not only did he not run for a second term, he did not even dare put himself forward as a candidate!

You see, he had  made the lamentable miscalculation of sending around 40,000 troops to Vietnam to help stabilize the government and prepare them for democratic elections. Then he  had to send more……and more……and more, and still the United States suffered a historic defeat.

President Obama reminds me a bit of a comic strip that ran in the 1940s to the 1970s called “Pogo.” Pogo was famous for saying, “We have met the enemy, and he is us.”

President Obama is about to shoot himself in the foot!

Regards,

Alan

If you would like to download a printable poster version of the above Bring The Troops Home Now graphic, right click here. In Internet Explorer, choose “save target as,” and in Firefox, choose “save link as.” It is suitable for printing on US-sized letter-paper or A4 paper.

URLs in this post:

1. Michael Moore on Huffington Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-moore/an-open-letter-to-preside_b_373457.html
2. Story on Karzai’s brother’s heroin connections: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/28/world/asia/28intel.html
3. Contact Page for Green Cross International, started by Gorbachev, founding president http://www.greencrossinternational.net/contact-us
4. Article in Foreign Affairs called Afghanistan, Graveyard of Empires, by Milton Bearden: http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/57411/milton-bearden/afghanistan-graveyard-of-empires
5. Article in The Hill called: Gorbachev to Obama: ‘Prepare the ground for withdrawal’ in Afghanistan: http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/67183-gorbachev-to-obama-prepare-the-ground-for-withdrawal-in-afghanistan
6. Huffington Post article on Robert Bear http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/11/24/robert-baer-what-were-fig_n_369760.html
7. Wikipedia article Matthew Hoh, former Marine captain and foreign service director in Afghanistan: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_Hoh
8. Text of Matthew Hoh’s letter of resignation: http://www.docstoc.com/docs/13944018/Matthew-Hoh-Resignation-Letter
9. Link to PeaceSojourner’s Blog site, from where I got the photograph for the poster. http://peacesojourner.blogspot.com/search/label/War
10. Link to download poster. http://alanoldstudent.nfshost.com/general_images/bringthetroopshomenow_poster.png