President Obama has sent Air Force Major General Scott Gratian, son of missionaries violently run out of the Congo, as a special envoy to make nice while the southern Sudanese plan to vote in January for independence from the north and the Bashir government.
The upcoming secession vote, fears of inciting anti-western, Islamic animosities and competition for resources with China keeps the US in a Bashir friendly mode.
If we assumed the role of world cop, took on corruption in Sudan and declared we were going to protect the Sudanese people like we are doing in Afghanistan, we would be creating another war like the one we created and are escalating in Afghanistan. And two wars is more than we can handle right now.
How did we get here?
How did ordinary Americans get themselves into such a mess where they are now forced to spend their hard-earned taxes (what Republicans want to cut) on making sure Afghan elites don't rob the cookie jar jammed full of those tax resources?
Did Americans ever vote on this? Were we ever asked: Yes or no, do you want billions, even trillions, of your tax resources allocated to a notoriously ungovernable "nation" largely still living in the 14th century?
Again, a stupid question. The best the American people get is the 2008 presidential election where, when it came to Afghanistan, both candidates were committed to not rocking the Pentagon boat and keeping the wars going.
Democratic and Republican leaders cling to these wars "out of parochial self-interest laced with inertia," writes Andrew Bacevich in Washington Rules: America's Path to Permanent War.
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