Circuitous Noodle: President Obama and Afghanistan

what Olberman said about Afghanistan surge the night before Obama's speech...

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I wrote this during the Cheney/Bush years....

They screwed the Afghanistan people and our troops who were fighting the terrorists who really did attack our country by running away from the ‘war on terror’ hijacking it for neoconservative desires. The Taliban is regaining strength in Afghanistan and Osama Bin Laden is still free. They have been the best friends of those who attacked us by making the United States weaker and reviled in the world while boosting Al Qaeda recruiting and prestige. They hijacked the criminal pursuit of Al Qaeda in favor of their own misguided desires and against the interests of the American people and those of the Middle East and they continue to do so. Their lying tongues like the 9-11 terrorists are drenched in the blood of the innocent. They truly belong on trial for the crimes they’ve committed against the citizens of the United States and Iraq and whatever else is uncovered.

I would like to add that Neocon-led Bush policies have made such a mess of Afghanistan, I'm sceptical that previous military successes there could be repeated. However, we owe justice to the 3,000 that has been denied them during this regime.

In an article from the Huffington Post on July 15, 2008 by: GLEN JOHNSON it is made very clear that, as president, Obama would make Afganistan, al-Qaida and the Taliban his top priority.

Obama Iraq Speech: US Strategy Is Unsound
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He's doing exactly what he said he would do.

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I do like the use of heavy diplomacy and political negotiation, as well as humanitarian assistance in Afghanistan. Whatever they have planned in this area they need to multiply. Civilian deaths are way, too, high. If we continue to be careless, it doesn't matter what positive things we do.

I would also have preferred less reliance on more troops while increasing the use of FBI, CIA and Special Forces in a more law enforcing mode than war.

from this morning - Democracy Now...

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Karzai stole the election. Will he now become our latest dictator in the pocket.

We commit, allow and turn our backs away from many atrocities because we want to better our position in the third world. Our government puts the best spin on these episodes whenever they see the light of day and claim it’s all in an effort to fight radical Islam. But are we truly any better when we endorse the same human rights abuses as our foes? Does it matter what side of the fence the bullet came from when you lie dying?

Friendly Dictators
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When we support a country whose government mutilates human rights we hand an ideological victory and propaganda tools for insurrectionists to use against us. Where they suppress speech we should encourage it. Where they use violence we should react with kindness, food and medical care.

Sometimes every choice sucks. I know Bush stuck us with Karzai, but we should let the people of Afghanistan know we do not support his human and civil rights violations and push for change. We should never provide military assistance or have friendly diplomatic ties with any country that violates the civil liberties of its citizens. We must never, as we have in the past and may still be, in some instances, abusers of the population ourselves.

For example, we have close economic ties with China whose benefits evidently carry more weight than the blood spilled by democracy loving students or the freedom and human rights we say we cherish so deeply. Policies such as this soil the Stars and Stripes far more than any match.

It is immoral to keep a people held hostage under a dictator or totalitarian system by providing the weapons and money needed to stay in power, then turn around and wage war against these same people because the same tyrannical government becomes unacceptable. This situation in Panama and Iraq left thousands of civilians dead. Will we end up facing this type of crisis in Afghanistan? Every time we cozy up to a dictator it comes back to bite us in the butt.

Too often, it seems many hawks in this country view world relations as a football game, us against them. The other team is dehumanized to ease our feelings as we ‘tromp’ them. There's absolutely no consideration of how we arrived in our present situation and to whether our conduct was and is ethical or in the best interests of all parties involved. Any targeting, careless or otherwise, of noncombatants is sinful.

Representative Joe Sestak on Obama's plan...

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from 60 Minutes...