Posted by
VBushmills on Wednesday, December 02, 2009 8:20:18 AM
Portland, 2 Dec 2009
In
September I asked the question, When does cynicism become murder?
It is now, and it is official.
Now that the United States is no longer interested in defeating the Taliban, or Al Qaeda, or preserving the national integrity of Afghanistan (such as it is or ever could be), we see no reason why any soldier should die in pursuit of a purely...and I might add, cynical...political objective.
Even during the Vietnam war, this was the one argument hawks could not effectively defeat, that men were dying in a no-win strategy..cynically executed. Even Bill Ayers, as he today still cries "murder", that complaint of murder at least has some sticking power to the deaths of so many American soldiers, fighting in Vietnam, first to prop up a corrupt family, then a corrupt cadre of generals, then to allow a slow withdrawal "with face". None of those things happened, while forty thousand died...and yes, a region enslaved.
So where is Bill Ayers today?
No matter.
We believe and have long known that many military objectives can be managed in Afghanistan without boots on the ground, i.e., drones and electronic surveillance. Abandoning the countryside to the Taliban, while pulling troops back to the cities, is, in our view, a sure sign of eventual collapse and defeat, for not in three years (Obama's timetable) nor in twenty years, will Afghani troops to be able (or willing) to venture out to the hinterland to drive them out.
We regret this loss of hope and freedom for so many Afghan people, but at least our presence there has provided a reservoir of cultural memories from which some good might come at a later time. Bringing a sense of freedom to Afghanistan was always hard, but as Moses Sands once said, it was even more predictably a success than Iraq. He and Vassar Bushmills laid that out some years ago. Nation building always starts from the bottom up, and the first seed for that has yet to be cast.
Our regrets about things we can do nothing about duly recorded; I now ask this question of the GOP: Why support this president in even one more day of military presence in Afghanistan? If you say "No" and say "no" for all the right reasons, clearly articulated, then the people will understand. The Left won't, but no matter, they will reluctantly join you in the call for an immediate draw down and denial of funding.
Step outside the box of predictability...for your acquiescence is indeed part of Obama's long term plan...and things will turn quickly.
Our defeat in Afghanistan is already Obama's baby. It was the minute he opened his mouth last night.
This is an enemy and a circumstance we will have to confront again, in the not too distant future...but hopefully under better and stronger leadership.
Bernard Chumm