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Even Air America's Randi Rhodes is on the bandwagon, backing the Obama Blitzkrieg Plan, and cheering the decision to send thirty thousand soldiers to Afghanistan. I thought Bush was supposed to be the cheerleader. I heard Randi say, in a bellicose voice, that Obama is simply doing what America voted for, because Obama campaigned for the presidency on increasing the number of troops in Afghanistan, and that Obama was going to "double down and send more of our young men.
Right, Randi. Keeping a stupid promise is a good idea. Secondly, even though we both used the same card-dealing analogy (I a week earlier in an Opednewsdiary) the difference is that my "double down metaphor infers that Obama's troop escalation is a foolish gamble, because Obama is out of chips. Please "keep hands off my wordsmith "chits . I respect you as a military veteran, but with Obama's move, we lose, our troops lose, and the Afghan people lose. I love you Randi, but not when you become Rah-Rah Randi for the Wrong Cause.
Obviously, our fighting men are capable of killing more Afghans. That is what will happen. A bigger Afghan body count may ensure USA anxiety relief, but only temporarily; it is a bad panacea for lasting peace. Perhaps America, after being held captive for eight years by George Bush, is suffering a collective Stockholm Syndrome. We are too traumatized to change course, afraid of accepting what we have done, and continue to do.
Pick up the Pulitzer Prize book by Samantha Power, titled "A Problem From Hell "America and the Age of Genocide . Because that is what we are talking about. The U.S. is fighting illegal wars, and we are killing tens, hundreds of thousands, even millions of people...because George Bush is an idiot.
Ms. Power, a foreign policy columnist at Time Magazine and professor at Harvard, asks the question: Why do American leaders who vow "never again repeatedly fail to stop genocide? From first hand experience in Bosnia, she seamlessly reveals patterns of people and leaders, that happen with frightening historical regularity, and allows humans to slaughter others with impunity, using denial, excuses, and twisted rationality. The Armenian genocide by Turkey; Hitler's slaughter of Jews; Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge in Cambodia; the Kurds in Iraq; Hutus and Tutsi in Rwanda. None of these occurred in a vacuum; diplomats from the U.S and U.N. knew well what was happening. But they turned a blind eye to mass murder. For millions of people, it was too late.
How many Afghans need to die? They are trying to survive a bitter Hindu Kush Winter. They are as poor as dirt. It is their country. I do not care how many votes Obama got in his campaign to send more troops to Afghanistan. It is a fantasy. Teaching American kids to kill Afghans for peace is a stupid idea.
We must do better.