What? Thirty-thousand more American troops to be sent to Afghanistan? Is Obama nuts? Hasn't our government learned anything from Korea and Vietnam? Dear Lord, the U.S. military will be in those two hellholes, Afghanistan and Iraq, for another four to eight years! When and if all troops leave, it will be after an ambiguous outcome at best. Meanwhile, absent a resurrected military draft, it'll be the same physically and emotionally exhausted soldiers fighting on and on in those countries while their families are torn apart back home. Thousands of young American men and women killed and maimed for life---what a godawful scene. I wish we had a U.S. President, Defense Secretary, and security advisors who would realize that the best we can do with such wars in the future is to use extensive air and naval power for a limited time, and not to get our foot soldiers bogged down in such quicksand. Why is our government so arrogant and naive in thinking that democracy can be implanted in those Asian countries, and in thinking that "nation building" is what soldiers should do best? Professional soldiers are professional killers (in the good sense of the term)---that's what they do best.
What baffles me, furthermore, is how, after the U.N. itself, the American Catholic bishops, and the Vatican itself urged the U.S. on moral grounds not to invade Af'stan and Iraq, we no longer hear any complaints or criticisms by the American bishops or pastors. On the contrary, it's back to "blessing the troops" as in the old days. And where are the public protests by young Americans against these wars? Would it take the renewed draft to finally budge them? (Maybe everyone under 30 could be notified by Twitter or whatever that the draft was restored.) I spent five years of successful anti-Vietnam draftdodging and sabotaging in Canada only to live to see this mess again? Jeez, our national security is not threatened by rag-tag radicals in the mountains of Af'stan. Terrorists are already present in many other countries including our own. Declare that we've done our best, immediately bring home all our soldiers, and use at least a portion of the saved money to improve homeland security and intelligence operations where it's really needed. Education, health, scientific research, etc. would welcome the remainder of the diverted money.
Oh well, no one listens to the Old Gargoyle anymore.
-Old Gargoyle
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2 comments:
I feel ya, Doc. I wonder what happened to protesting, too. There's a great feeling of "it won't work anyway" washed over people nowadays. Cynicism--I think people are figuring out at an earlier age how hard it is to get people to listen.
I, too, lament the death of protest. Every year at graduation I secretly hope that the person giving the valedictory address will pull a Hillary Rodham Clinton and change her approved speech at the last second. Where is the student who will chain himself to the flagpole to protest the climate talks? Where is the child who will stage a school-wide walkout to make a statement about the health care proposal that the Senate won't let anyone see? Where is the teen who knows what any of this is?
As for your commentary about the war...well, I need time to think about it. My initial reaction is to say that the Korea/Vietnam allusion is the first retort of pacifists. Are you truly surprised that the president committed the troops? In the speech that brought him to national prominence in 2002, he said that the Iraq war was merely a distraction from the larger issue in Afghanistan. That's not to say that there isn't some hypocrisy on his part, however. He is, after all, the man who insisted a troop surge in Iraq would fail (it didn't) and yet insisted on the same tactic in Afghanistan. He actually used the term "surge" to describe the deployment.
I am devastated at the prospect of losing more young men and women. We just lost a graduate (class of '04) in a roadside bomb explosion in Afghanistan. Two years ago, we lost a graduate (class of '03) in a convoy attack in Iraq. Presently, I have a student who took the oath to defend his country as a United States Marine. I told him seriously, and in no uncertain terms, that he was to dive into the deepest foxhole he could find. (Do they even have foxholes in Afghanistan? Maybe a cave?)
But I truly believe that "dulce et decorum est..."
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