Hey, what can I tell you? For a few days, it almost smelled like Obama would resist the call to send tens of thousands more U.S. troops into the hell-hole that is Afghanistan. That cloud of wispy optimism has 
surely passed, and while the announcement, as of this writing, has not yet been made, it’s clear that something like 30,000 to 35,000 more American bodies will be placed between the religious fanatics, drug smugglers, blood-stained warlords, and underworld entrepreneurs that dominate both sides of the Afghan struggle. To what end? Well, we’ve been promised that Obama will explain his strategy in a nationally-televised address this coming week. My guess is that it will be somewhat reminiscent of Bush Jr.’s address announcing the surge in Iraq – a change of strategy concentrating on the fundamentals of securing and holding territory, investing more dollars in reconstruction, and promoting regional cooperation. Bush’s speech was in the wake of the major disaster that his team had created in Iraq, prompting the U.S. institutional foreign policy establishment to, in essence, reassert itself and save the empire. In Obama’s case, concern for the empire is at the very center of his administration, and the burden of rescuing it will continue to be consigned to our “all-volunteer” military force. Whatever the stated strategy may turn out to be, that is the underlying motivation.
One would hope that rooting out corruption will not be offered up as a goal. I think, after eight years of this war, we are at least owed a little honesty. Corruption is the platform for the Afghan government; it cannot stand without it. Karzai and company are reliant on many of the same characters that ran the country into the ground following the Soviet departure; a patchwork of petty kings profiting on the immiseration of their countrymen and women (and particularly women). Much has been said about how much better the current government is than the Taliban. What doesn’t get mentioned is that the Taliban was a step up from what preceded it; and that what preceded it was bankrolled by us for more than ten years. The Taliban itself is made up of people who benefited from the billions we spent on training the mujahedeen during the 1980s. Just as during that period, it is clear that we are in Afghanistan for reasons that have very little to do with the Afghans themselves. The stated goal is to keep that country from becoming a haven for Al Qaeda and other similar organizations that attack western targets. It seems to me that an important part of that mission is not making thousands of new enemies every month we operate in that region.
Some might think that ending this conflict would be political suicide for any president. That may be so – it’s hard to say for certain, since the country seems divided pretty evenly on the topic. It’s never been a 
comfortable thing to do what’s right. If stopping these wars cost Obama his job, I would hope he would consider it well worth the cost – I can think of worse things to be remembered for… like driving us into another decade of this pointless death and destruction. But to ignore the political calculus of overseas military entanglements is to ignore history. Absent vigorous anti-war activism right here at home – to the tune of many, many thousands in the streets – all of the prevailing political winds will blow Obama toward increasing deployments of military resources to the Afghan “trap”, as Bin Laden called it. As I’ve said in this blog before (probably too many times), this is one of the perils of empire: our foreign policy is supported by a professionalized foreign legion made up of volunteers and mercenaries (or, if you prefer, “contractors”) and floated by borrowed capital, thereby insulating the vast majority of our population from the actual costs of war.
If this were still a democracy, as opposed to an empire, we would be right back where we were in 1964-65: on the cusp of a conscription-fueled popular revolt against an unjust war. As it is, we’re… well… next to nowhere.
luv u,
jp
Yes, friends, we’re back home in Indiana… I mean, in upstate New York again. Back at the fabled and storied (actually, three stories, plus the roof and basement) Cheney Hammer Mill. We arrived on the redeye late last night… and by “redeye” I don’t mean an overnight flight from Andrews Airforce Base; rather, an eye-popping super-light speed journey through the outer solar system with a drunken mad scientist at the controls, half-empty quart of redeye clutched in his left paw. Weaving? Yes, we had that. Sudden drops in altitude? Most def. And what about those dramatic gravitational variances? Well, we endured our share, clinging to the exposed plumbing of the upper deck (some of which emitted an eerie green glow – uuuuhhhllll), rolling with the turbulence as our inebriated navigator snaked his way between the planets like celestial highway cones. There were a couple of exciting moments – Mitch Macaphee had missed the memo about that new Saturnian ring, and we plowed right through the sucker with inches to spare – but even with one eye closed (and one brain neutralized), we managed to hit our earthly target.
man, I pulled open the front door and let the uniformed individuals in. They were looking for the man-sized tuber, they told me, and would only say why directly to the tuber himself. When he wheeled himself into the room, one of our visitors hung a ceremonial ribbon around his… well… neck, I guess you could call it. “Congratulations, Mr. Mayor,” said the woman to the tuber, “and welcome home.” And I was like… and tubey was like… and Mitch was like… what the fuck, we were ALL like something I obviously can’t describe, but which approximates surprise and flabbergastedness. (At least not using words. Gestures, perhaps.)
Folks just north of here almost elected the intellectual equivalent of a box of rocks as their congressman. And what the hell, this seemed like it could redound significantly to our benefit, know what I mean? After all, we are just SQUATTERS here, no defined rights at least in the local codebook (except the right to be taken to jail). Now that he’s mayor, tubey can keep the heat off of us. He can, I don’t know, appoint Marvin (my personal robot assistant) as Public Safety Commissioner and Mitch Macaphee as his, I don’t know, budget director. I’m just thinking out loud here. Well, that sounded all well and good, and as they led the new mayor off to his cush mansion in the middle of town, we all sat back and waited for those benefits to start rolling in the front door like over-ripe oranges, fresh-plucked from the plush fronds of the juiciest tree in town. Mmmmm, boy – solid privilege!
onto the growing pile. Commentators pretty much across the mainstream spectrum of opinion have latched onto this idea that Hasan was given the chance to do this heinous act by virtue of a culture of “political correctness” within the military, i.e. the Army being over-sensitive to Muslims within their ranks and overlooking Hasan’s failings. This strikes me as wildly off the mark and – worse – an attempt to utilize an unspeakable act of murder to make political points. It’s also part of the very common practice of mainstream commentators to avoid the elephant in the room when discussing matters related to our two simultaneous wars; namely, the true costs of such extended conflicts on those who fight in them, and the unwillingness of so many of the rest of us to share that burden in any meaningful sense.
So here’s this army psychologist tasked with counseling soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan – individuals who are having severe problems, no doubt. They are coming back from Iraq with stories of the kind heard in detail during the Winter Soldier hearings of a couple of years ago – telling them to a devout Muslim with fundamentalist leanings. This Major Hasan has a skinful of this stuff and is taking abuse about being a Muslim himself. He is told he is to be shipped overseas for the first time and is working on getting himself out of the military entirely. Like so many instances in the modern military, this was another atrocity-producing situation in the making. But the fact that this very screwed-up guy got as far as he did speaks volumes about how thinly stretched our armed forces are, particularly with 120,000 troops still in Iraq and major influxes planned for Afghanistan (it appears).