Obama's Plan for Afghanistan?

A good Qorma recipe.

Will the Afghanistan war contribute in any way to rebuilding the US economy?
Pardon me, shouldn’t you be asking Will the Afghanistan war contribute in any way to rebuilding Afghanistan?

The plan is to give oil and a pipeline to the oil companies, heroin to the CIA, and establish bases so that the military can surround Iran and establish a greater presence in the region in general. It’s not about sustaining anything other than the funneling tax dollars to corporate interests.

If a nation fights wars only in the interest of rebuilding its economy, that nation fights often for very bad reasons and never for ones that are just. We can certainly debate whether invading Afghanistan 8 years ago was necessary and justified. I hope we all still remember why George Bush thought it was. There weren’t many things I agreed with him about during his tenure as President, but that happened to be one of them.

I’m certainly open today to better ideas that would let us withdraw our troops without risking additional 9/11 style devastating attacks or destabilizing important allies. But to precipitously withdraw after urging the Government of Pakistan to confront the radicals within its borders strikes me as deeply dangerous. It’s easy for talking heads to go on television and say that there are only 100 or so Al Qaeda members left in Afghanistan now. But that ignores how they got from Afghanistan to Pakistan. They walked across the border. It would be moronic to assume they can’t or won’t walk right back if conditions improve for them on the Afghan side.

That would leave Al Qaeda right back in their safe haven under Taliban protection in Afghanistan once again. Not only could they launch attacks against us and our allies from there, they could strike at the Pakistani Government at will, then retreat across the border into safety. If they succeed in destabilizing Pakistan, there are nuclear weapons there that will likely end up in Al Qaeda’s hands.

Now, to the other half of your question. How economically sustainable is the war effort? As hideous as war is, it’s one of the few things humans do with such gusto that it generally bolsters the economy. It puts a million or more people to work, and their work is never done, because we blow up so much of what they build. Remember, WWII put the final nails in the coffin lid of the Great Depression

Don’t get me wrong, here. I am certainly not an advocate of war for the economy’s sake. I denounced such at the beginning of this response. But remembering why we got into this war, and what the stakes are should we abandon it un-won. We have to look at the sustainability of taking continual hits like 9/11 or worse when we calculate the cost and whether we are willing to pay it or not. I suggest that if Al Qaeda ever managed to get their hands on nuclear weapons and long-range launch capability, the costs in blood and treasure to the West would be so much higher than this current war that it pales in comparison.

@kevbo You know, I am truly growing weary of people who think a cigar is a phallic symbol or a missile fuselage or a baseball bat or a long, thin fish; but a cigar is NEVER just a plain old cigar.

Well best of luck to you proffering your informed opinions on why it is so complex and difficult and costs billions of dollars per year to be so unsuccessful in keeping that cigar properly humidified. If only our world leaders had the common sense and informed opinion of thinking people such as yourself, perhaps we would have wrapped this up a few years ago.

I think that the United States of America has an interest in keeping terrorists away from Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal, and this may have to involve operations in Afghanistan. This is not “Obama’s” anything. It is a matter of State and it is being dealt with through the Pentagon, the CIA, the FBI, the Joint Chiefs, the Diplomatic Service and the national security services. The idea that Obama controls this is comparable to the idea that a captain is in control of a storm-tossed ship.

Random sources:

Oil
Heroin
Bases

@kevbo So do you maintain that 9/11 didn’t really happen or that those in the West who wanted Oil, Heropin and Bases somehow convinced 19 Islamic terrorist to go through the the motions and Bin Laden to take credit while the secret bosses of the West really took the Twin Towers down with thermite and ran a missile into the Pentagon?

No, I think the government is so incompetent that they are unable to protect the Pentagon from a passenger plane. I can’t imagine how vulnerable that building must have been during the Cold War when the Soviet air force was our primary concern.

@kevbo So what DO you think actually happened?

More or less your second scenario. An intelligence faction spanning across the CIA, Moussad and the ISI put everything together. The towers were rigged during the elevator upgrades in early 2001. The Pentagon plane passed over the Pentagon and landed at Reagan National one mile away, while a drone hit the Pentagon. Flt 93 was shot down by other US forces that were acting as we would normally expect. Whether there were hijackers or not is somewhat irrelevant, since the planes could have just as easily been “hijacked” and flown by remote control.

@kevbo Who smuggled the Kryptonite into Smallville so that Superman was unable to rescue the 9/11 3,000? The CIA? The John Birch Society? Oh, I know! The Symbionese Liberation Army!

Your mom.

Oh wait. I meant Shrek.

@kevbo Having talked with many conspiracy theorists before, I know how utterly pointless it is to even take up such a debate. Fare the well, and keep that tin-foil hat in place to stop the TV from controling your mind, my friend.

Likewise.