When Bush took over the presidency, he was blinded by the idea of ridding us of Saddam Hussein at any cost. Now Obama is following the same strategy in Afghanistan-Pakistan. He is a fresh thinker, his approach is refreshing, and he is endowed with a re-fresh button. Unfortunately, he has shown this dumber-than-dumb streak in him to show off his macho manhood--killing and destruction.
Obama is my hero, and those of us who admire him have an obligation to point out his mis-steps which could cost us dearly in economic and moral terms. If his policy in Afghanistan were to work, he will have blood of millions of innocent people on him--and I hope he would not justify these massacres as collateral damage as the ruthless man did before. He can be a macho man by bringing peace through goodwill. Our silence will become approval to Obama on Afghanistan.
I hope in the next decade the historians will not write bad things about American macho presidencies. It is our responsibility to speak up and make sure our democracy is a full functioning democracy with operative checks and balances. We owe it to our country to break the monopolies and give the Republicans a majority in the Senate to prevent the temptations from doing whimsical nonsense as the President's predecessor did. The amount of money we blew in Iraq which hurt our own economy, killed nearly 5000 of our men and women and close to a million Iraqi's--and caused civil war between their own people--was plain dumb.
We were plainly destructive. We could have used a tenth of that money and supplied food and medicine to dying children, built schools, taught democracy, and worked on goodwill. Have we forgotten diplomacy? Within one generation we could have turned around Iraq into a working democracy without any bloodshed. The previous man in the White House did not get that. And now Obama is employing his dumb streak to work in Afghanistan. It will not work.
The arrogance of our military might well make us lose. We have a history of failures in every place we have employed our macho power except Russia and World War II. We should be arrogant of our goodness and goodwill which will make others want to honor, respect and listen to us. Obama has been right in every aspect except Afghanistan. Of course it suits Hillary. Call in the peace makers and let them hold conferences and give you the ideas that will work and earn respect in the community of nations and strengthen our economy. America is enriched with brilliant businessmen and peacemakers, who know how to make Afghanistan a thriving economy and a progressive society,bringing security and sustainable peace to that part of the world. Just dump the old idea of enslaving other nations with guns. Be macho enough to win them on equal terms. Mr. President, please wake up and be the good human that you are.
Mike Ghouse is a Dallas based writer, blogger, speaker and a thinker. He is a frequent guest on talk radio and local television networks offering a pluralistic perspective on issues of the day. His comments, news analysis and columns can be found on the Websites and Blogs listed at his personal website
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