The idea of a “War on Terrorism” has always had internal contradictions. How do you fight an enemy without a traditional army?
It was feared from the very beginning that each US military victory would, rather than reduce terrorism, only fuel the anger of the opposition more, and recruit more terrorists. The fear was that we would get stuck in an endless cycle of violence and reprisals that have characterized every other terrorist conflict in the world, such as Northern Ireland, Israel, Chechnya, et cetera.
Way back in 2001, the supporters of the Afghanistan War assured us this wouldn’t happen. They said that while it may be true that every other occupying army in history has been resented by the local population, this time would be different. Our troops would target only the terrorists, and would win the support and trust of the local people.
Over 10 years later, I think it’s time to admit this little experiment has run its course .
If it were active US Government in Afghanistan policy to inflame Muslim hatred as much as possible, it would be hard to imagine how things would be any worse.
First there were the US soldiers urinating on dead Muslim soldiers. Then there was the burning of the Koran. And now the news that 16 Afghanistan civilians, 9 of them children, were murdered by a US soldier.
By themselves, any one of these could be excused as an aberration.
Taken together, I think it’s impossible to avoid the conclusion that:
1) The US government has lost control over its soldiers, and
2) US soldiers no longer want to be in Afghanistan.
If anyone can think of any good that can be reached by continuing this occupation, please let me know. Because I can’t see any.
Instead, what I see is a continuing occupation that is just daily making things worse and worse.
It’s time to end this war now. No more US soldiers need to die in Afghanistan, and the US government is hugely in debt and can no longer afford to fund this occupation.
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ENLIGHTENMENT MINUTES - with Noam Chomsky
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1 comment:
I agree, let's get out of that region. Unfortunately a great deal of damage has already been done, and there will probably be some sort of repercusions for it. Just as I tend to be nervous around someone with a turban on their head due to the 9/11 attacks-while wishing to be open minded - I am sure many afghani's look at U.S. soldiers in nervousness or fear because of what a few soldiers have done. Just as it only takes one bad apple to ruin a pie, it takes one bad person to ruin many peoples' lives.
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