I am a red bloodied American Liberal. I am also an American patriot. I qualify this because I will take a stance on Afghanistan that is completely out of context with our core belief but based on reality. Here it goes.
We will not and must not leave Afghanistan. The real reason has nothing to do with Afghanistan being the genesis of the attacks on America. The reality is any number of countries today or in the past is or was sanctuaries to those that plot to do us harm.
The reason we must stay is that historically and presently Afghanistan is ungovernable and corrupt. More importantly Afghanistan is the repository of rare earths and minerals that other powers will exploit in the vacuum created by a US departure. Our middle class has already been outsourced which is tantamount to a transfer of wealth to foreign countries and to the American wealthy two percent. It would be patriotically irresponsible to knowingly allow other foreign powers to gain further economic prowess over the United States by taking advantage of Afghanistan’s natural resources.
The United States attack of the Taliban as the governing power in Afghanistan was justified. Maintaining a relatively strong presence is in the United States economic interest and in the current Afghan government’s security interest.
If everyone including ourselves played by the rules, the purist Liberal views would prevail. The reality is as an American our first loyalty is to the social & economic wellbeing of America. I think Liberals expressing a more nuanced but practical view is much more acceptable to most Americans. This is necessary anyway to get a governing majority to effect overall progressive policies.
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On Thursday, December 16, 2010, the White House will use its December review to try to spin the disastrous Afghanistan War plan by citing "progress" in the military campaign, but the available facts paint a picture of a war that’s not making us safer and that’s not worth the cost.
Let’s take a look at just the very broad strokes of the information. After more than nine years and a full year of a massive escalation policy:
- the insurgency continues to gain in size and strength,
- more U.S. troops are dying than ever,
- more civilians are dying than ever,
- violence in the country continues to spike,
- Pakistan is playing a double game with the U.S. and
- the military strategy lacks credible prospects for a turnaround.
And yet, we are told we can expect a report touting security gains and "progress," and that there’s virtually zero chance of any significant policy change from this review. It sort of begs the question: just what level of catastrophe in Afghanistan would signal that we need a change in direction?
Insurgency Growing and Getting Stronger
This cat is already out of the bag, no matter how hard the Pentagon tries to reel it back in. In the ironically named "Report on Progress Toward Security and Stability in Afghanistan," published several weeks ago, the Pentagon told Congress that the insurgency’s organizational and geographic reach are qualitatively and geographically expanding. This growth is reflected in other statistics. According to USA TODAY, U.S. troops were hit with 7,000 more attacks this year compared to last year. About 3,800 troops were killed and injured by IEDs, about 1,000 more than last year. These statistics depict an insurgency with unbroken momentum, despite administration and military claims to the contrary.
Robert Greenwald and Derrick Crowe: Failure, Not Progress, in Afghanistan