1
The
reader can think back on what his or her precious childhood was worth:
the bright fresh morning awakenings; mom and dad's affection; playing
with favorite toys in fantasy and imagination; the feel of the sun and
wind on your skin; a sudden shower of rain on your face; the magic
appearance of falling snow; fun with other kids; running and tumbling
and laughing and going to bed excited about tomorrow.
The poignant memories of childhood are somewhat universal, the same, whether having been a child in America, or in Afghanistan. Only for the next Afghani children destined to be sacrificed by a U.S. desperately holding on to control in oil rich Central Asia, the childhood will have been cut short, not followed by the adventures of adolescence, a slow proud coming of age and being finally grown into an attractive young woman or handsome young man, - the apple of a mother's eye, a desirable marriage partner for someone, the pride of the family and hope of the community.
The child in Afghanistan will have the same two eyes and ears, sensations and feelings that it would have in the United States, the same frightened reaction to terrifically loud noise, bombing, pain, bleeding and dying.
Childhood delights will have been the similar for each of the 34,000 additional troops and the same for each sweet, lovely and beloved little girl or boy that some of these thirty-four thousand additional troops are going to kill with the additional guns and bombs they will be bringing to Afghanistan.
Not a few of these 34,000 additional young American troops will ever be the same afterward. Many will never be able to forget what they did to someone else's child, child's father or mother, brother or sister, uncle or aunt, grandparents, in a dirt poor country that never attacked any other country.
During all these months and weeks of deciding the fate of Afghanis and their children, Obama has not been known to have asked a sampling of ordinary Afghan people how many more additional American troops they might like him to send to their country.
For eight long years Bush and now Obama have been asking their generals how many more troops they wanted, and telling the world that America needs to stay in Afghanistan to fight al Qaeda (they stopped saying they were there to look for Osama bin Laden). Obama still cites 9/11, never admitting that the Saudis in those planes had no Afghanis with them.
Recently, it seems that the corrupt Afghan individual America made president of Afghanistan spoke out of turn and asked that no more troops be sent for a while. He and his government have been speaking to the wind for years, pleading the U.S. to stop killing their children with bombs from the sky.
An Afghanistan war experienced CIA official went public the other day claiming what every mother's child already knew, namely, that the Afghanis are fighting against the occupation of their country and not for al Qaeda. Fighting invaders is a traditional obligation in Afghanistan culture.
For the busy American public, there is a total lack of compassion or even interest for any Afghan child that perishes in harm's way of the wonderful American Army, but no lack of interest in how much these killings are going to cost the American taxpayer. Actually the killing of children is not figured into to the cost of killing their fathers as insurgents or suspected insurgents fighting against the occupation of their children's homeland.
It has been reported that Obama intends not to announce the sending of the 34,000 until after Thanksgiving because its nothing to be thankful for.
Yes, nothing to be thankful for - not for America, not for Afghani children and their families, not for anybody, unless it be al Qaeda watching as the U.S. further alienates world opinion and justifies al Qaeda's call for more recruits from among older Muslim children wishing to prove themselves as brave sons of their bitterly aggrieved and enraged fathers.
The poignant memories of childhood are somewhat universal, the same, whether having been a child in America, or in Afghanistan. Only for the next Afghani children destined to be sacrificed by a U.S. desperately holding on to control in oil rich Central Asia, the childhood will have been cut short, not followed by the adventures of adolescence, a slow proud coming of age and being finally grown into an attractive young woman or handsome young man, - the apple of a mother's eye, a desirable marriage partner for someone, the pride of the family and hope of the community.
The child in Afghanistan will have the same two eyes and ears, sensations and feelings that it would have in the United States, the same frightened reaction to terrifically loud noise, bombing, pain, bleeding and dying.
Childhood delights will have been the similar for each of the 34,000 additional troops and the same for each sweet, lovely and beloved little girl or boy that some of these thirty-four thousand additional troops are going to kill with the additional guns and bombs they will be bringing to Afghanistan.
Not a few of these 34,000 additional young American troops will ever be the same afterward. Many will never be able to forget what they did to someone else's child, child's father or mother, brother or sister, uncle or aunt, grandparents, in a dirt poor country that never attacked any other country.
During all these months and weeks of deciding the fate of Afghanis and their children, Obama has not been known to have asked a sampling of ordinary Afghan people how many more additional American troops they might like him to send to their country.
For eight long years Bush and now Obama have been asking their generals how many more troops they wanted, and telling the world that America needs to stay in Afghanistan to fight al Qaeda (they stopped saying they were there to look for Osama bin Laden). Obama still cites 9/11, never admitting that the Saudis in those planes had no Afghanis with them.
Recently, it seems that the corrupt Afghan individual America made president of Afghanistan spoke out of turn and asked that no more troops be sent for a while. He and his government have been speaking to the wind for years, pleading the U.S. to stop killing their children with bombs from the sky.
An Afghanistan war experienced CIA official went public the other day claiming what every mother's child already knew, namely, that the Afghanis are fighting against the occupation of their country and not for al Qaeda. Fighting invaders is a traditional obligation in Afghanistan culture.
For the busy American public, there is a total lack of compassion or even interest for any Afghan child that perishes in harm's way of the wonderful American Army, but no lack of interest in how much these killings are going to cost the American taxpayer. Actually the killing of children is not figured into to the cost of killing their fathers as insurgents or suspected insurgents fighting against the occupation of their children's homeland.
It has been reported that Obama intends not to announce the sending of the 34,000 until after Thanksgiving because its nothing to be thankful for.
Yes, nothing to be thankful for - not for America, not for Afghani children and their families, not for anybody, unless it be al Qaeda watching as the U.S. further alienates world opinion and justifies al Qaeda's call for more recruits from among older Muslim children wishing to prove themselves as brave sons of their bitterly aggrieved and enraged fathers.
