When we accidentally kill the president of Afghanistan’s cousin, maybe we should take it as an omen that we’re not supposed to be in that country. I mean, if you’re into looking for signs, this could be one of those signs that kind of screams, “Get the Hell Out.” I’m just saying. We could just announce that if anyone pulls a stunt like 9/11 again, we’ll behave with even less introspection and react with four times the senseless violence. That ought to be a strong deterrent, and we can and probably will make good on the promise. If anyone doubts our capacity for stupid destructive behavior, they deserve what they get. As for the innocent victims, maybe people should think about them before they poke us in the eye. I’ve given up hope that we’re capable of using our heads. We don’t want to even try.
About The Author
BooMan
Martin Longman a contributing editor at the Washington Monthly. He is also the founder of Booman Tribune and Progress Pond. He has a degree in philosophy from Western Michigan University.
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Yeah, that ought to be a strong deterrent. Especially if it’s delivered by Richard Nixon.
We could use the Futurama Richard Nixon to deliver the message.
I agree!
A recent survey found that over 90% of Afghans had never heard of 9/11. Ponder that.
I imagine if they took a survey 90% of Americans have never heard of TAPI.
Repeat this mantra: Domestic politics drives foreign policy. Because it’s true.
Now, realize that domestic politics in the US is now disconnected almost completely from public opinion — especially in the Congress. Neither Republicans nor Democrats are listening, so caught up in their fratboy power maneuvers are they. So we will stay in Afghanistan until there is a status of forces agreement with the Afghan government that tells us when to leave. Obama is not going to do the big “Who lost Afghanistan?” hang-out on this issue.
The good news. Completion of the revolutions in the Middle East that delivers mostly democratic governments destroys the reason for being of al Quaeda. (But Pete King is doing everything in his power to keep a Quaeda able to recruit youth from the US.)
People in Afghanistan and Pakistan are tired of the Taliban. They’ve gone from being seen as religious fighters to being seen as thugs.
The tough line that Karzai has taken in criticizing the US has not hurt him with his domestic politics. In a perverse sort of way, the US has brought unity to the country.
The Taliban outside the Pakistan border area around the Northwest Territories and Federally Administered Tribal Areas are reduced to suicide bombing tactics.
The bad news. US operational intelligence is for shit. All those civilian casualties are not because US troops are bloodthirsty monsters; it’s because they rely too much on questionable intelligence is identifying targets. And they cannot discount the idea that the Taliban would use kids for hostile missions.
Harmid Karzai has lots of cousins.
Now, to how to deter future 9/11’s. First, you can’t absolutely. But you can continue to pursue al Quaeda operatives through international police work (like we should have done in 2001) and you must take what you do find out seriously and not brush it off with a “You’ve covered your ass, sonny. Now get out of here.” statement.
About using our heads. Pull the plug on the endless chatter from FoxNews, Rush, and all of the rightie talkers and folks might have the space to think again. There is no secret why these jokers try to be in every small town on every public TV and 24/7. Without the constant reinforcement, the spell is broken and people start thinking critically again. In a lot of respects, this sort of true belief is like an addiction that requires a new hit frequently. Jon Stewart’s words of wisdom to Tucker Carlson still hold. “Stop. You. are. hurting. America.”
And how do you ‘pull the plug on FoxNews’? Sounds good.
That is an interesting question. One way is to not patronize their sponsors, as much as one can. Another is to object to the public force-feeding of FoxNews at businesses and if they persist in keeping FoxNews on, finding another place to patronize.
One other idea, and I don’t know how to do it, would be to put public pressure on cable providers to move it to premium service. FoxNews is privileged over other news networks by being a basic service in a lot of places, while CNN and MSNBC are premium services and Al Jazeera and sometimes BBC are missing entirely.
A new fairness/equal time doctrine? Whatever it was called, the one Mr. Clinton threw down the shitter. Never happen. Fox is an American institution and it’s here to stay. Maybe Murdoch’s children will have other fish to fry. Whatever, thry’re sure to follow the money, that’s the nature of the beast.
Watch Al Jazeera. Even on the earthquake and the tsunami it is light years away from US stations. Not to mention Libya, Egypt, etc. They even have experts telling the viewers what happened and how a tsunami works, etc.
>>People in Afghanistan and Pakistan are tired of the Taliban.
Are they as tired of the Taliban as they are of U.S. occupation?
>>All those civilian casualties are not because US troops are bloodthirsty monsters
no, the troops aren’t “mosnsters”, they just don’t care how much “collateral damage” is done. Either way it is resulting in lots of civilian casualties.
>>the Taliban would use kids for hostile missions.
sounds like you’re trying to justify the recent massacre of unarmed teenagers collecting firewood.
Are they as tired of the Taliban as they are of U.S. occupation?
Most reports indicate both equally. In Pakistan, there are only a very small area that experiences the presence of US actions. That means that even in the Northwest Territories and FATA most people have stronger opinions about the US in Afghanistan. They are depending on the Pakistani government to object to US incursions into Pakistan. But in the Northwest Territories and FATA, the bulk of the populations wants an end to Taliban terrorism and is glad when the Pakistani army brings stability to their communities.
no, the troops aren’t “mosnsters”, they just don’t care how much “collateral damage” is done. Either way it is resulting in lots of civilian casualties.
In asymmetric warfare, it is the insurgents who benefit from collateral damage and those pursuing counter-insurgency who try to avoid collateral damage. It is not an issue of “caring”. If US soldiers are going to obey the orders of their superiors, they are going to be put in situations in which they must make split-second decisions about whether someone is or is not a threat. The real issue is how quickly the US can get out of Afghanistan, and that has everything to do with the domestic politics of Congress. PTSD doesn’t only come from seeing comrades killed or injured in battle or what the enemy does to civilians; there are huge personal costs to the guilt of seeing the collateral damage resulting from your own or your unit’s action.
sounds like you’re trying to justify the recent massacre of unarmed teenagers collecting firewood.
I’m not trying to justify anything. A massacre is a massacre and regardless of the reasons has a huge moral cost to the people responsible for it.
This story is not as straightforward as it seems by saying “massacre of unarmed teenagers collecting firewood”, which brings images like My Lai. The official report is:
Firing artillery would mean that the troops might not have seen anything except the likely origin of the incoming rocket. And they might not have interpreted the direction correctly. And one would have to know what the planes carrying out the bombing actually saw and how they decided where the threat was.
The official apology said:
That means that the attack helicopter crew approached their task with the assumption that any male on the ground was an insurgent. Their training had not ever suggested the possibility that there might be civilians going about normal life at those coordinates.
Understanding what likely happened does not exonerate the crew for the deaths. But it points out why counter-insurgency is not a viable military strategy unless one undertakes a scorched earth policy, which means behaving like Muammar Gaddafi. The conclusion I come to from this is that the US is not well equipped to succeed politically by using a counter-insurgency strategy. Especially in another country. And warfare is a continuation of politics by other means (Clausewitz). Without clearly understanding the politics behind the war, what remains is a meaningless spasm of violence–something military cheerleaders do not recognize.
Booman, we’re going to clear and hold the helmand, beef up local coordination, improve security conditions in strategic hamlets, and just be well on our way to tying everything up with a bow round about 2014-2018, with a few more decades of mop-up operation if we want to do things right. Decades of occupation and 1 Trillion+ is a small price to pay to deal with the menace of these gruff talibani who don’t like us and could probably blow up the Talladega 500 whenever they like, with Iranian help no doubt. Plus it will teach the Al Queda cadres in Pakistan a good lesson.
That’s the pessimistic view.
The optimistic view is that Harmid Karzai is going to kick out butts out with a status of forces agreement before 2014, if not before November 2012.
There was a recent article where the Pentagon announced to the White House that the America’s War Profiteers have decided to stay in Afghanistan for at least 8 more years. There is too much money to be made by murdering children with helicopters and bombing wedding parties.
The temporary Presidents (with a term of four years every president is temporary) have no authority in the Executive Branch anymore. It doesn’t matter what any President wants to do, they are constrained by the profits of the permanent members of the Executive Branch.
For example:
The Pentagon, representing the War Profiteers of America, will never allow any President to negatively impact the huge transfer of wealth from the poor to the obscenely wealthy.
The DEA, representing the nation’s police and the for-profit prison industry, will never allow Marijuana to be legalized because it would negatively impact the profits of their members.
America has only ONE duty in Afghanistan: America’s poor, having no other job opportunities, volunteer to be bullet-catchers, to murder women and children, to make more enemies for generations to come for sole purpose of perpetual War Profiteering.
Any discussion of AlQaeda, the Taliban, radical Islam, etc. is all lies invented by those whose duty it is to obfuscate the blatant truth. THE ONLY REASON TO BE IN AFGHANISTAN (or any other nation) IS WAR PROFITEERING.