July 4, 2008
by Paul Kemp

The headline for the Portland Oregonian newspaper today (June 28th, 2008) announced this remarkable discovery: "Outlook for Afghanistan Bleak".  Well,it's nice that after close to seven years of killing there, we've realized we're not getting anywhere, nor are we likely to.   
 
Dropping very expensive "smart bombs" on Afghan civilians and calling the dead "insurgents" doesn't win over the "hearts and minds" of their relatives, but what the heck, as long as General Dynamics and McDonnell Douglas get paid, the mission is a success!  (This apparently is the belief of the pluocrats who secretly rule America.) 
 
I suppose the point of this article in the Oregonian is to inform the American people that our world-spanning military empire will require more troops to somehow make the outlook less bleak.
 
It would never occur to our military chieftains that, when a thing isn't working, maybe it's time to quit.  No, we never will quit.  We have our pride to uphold.  We'll go bankrupt first!
 
The US government pounded on little Vietnam for more than 14 years before we admitted we were beaten, so this Afghan war is young.  There are at least another seven years of profits for the arms manufacturers and security contractors, if our economy can hold up that long.
 
I don't even need to read the whole article to suss out what they are preparing us for.  When something isn't working, we must do more of the same! (The textbook definition of insanity.)  We need a surge of fresh troops.  We must "stay the course!"  We should send more troops at the least, as if putting a patrol on every street in the whole country could force the Afghans to give up their struggle against the invading Americans.
 
That the Afghanis have a long history of resisting empires that try to subdue them doesn't concern the Bush administration or the follow-along Democrats.  That they are perfectly willing to die in service to their religion doesn't faze us in our futile attempt to make them into something they don't want to be.  It should be a clue that we can't win there, but our leaders are clueless.
 
Let's review why we are fighting in Afghanistan: We attacked the people and government of Afghanistan because they refused to give up to us their revered guest, Osama bin Laden, who purportedly masterminded the 9/11 attack.  From the Afghanis' Muslim point of view, Osama is a hero from their successful CIA-funded fight against the domination by the Soviets and now the USA.  (Non-readers may gain a general sense of what we did to foster this nest of Islamic radicalism by watching "Charlie Wilson's War", if they take it with a large grain of salt.  Michael Scheuer, the CIA bin Laden expert, is doubtless a better source: "Imperial Hubris", though I don't agree with his ideas to solve our bin Laden problem.
 
We now believe Osama and friends are living and training in Pakistan, our ally, which is making a feeble attempt from time to time to force warlords in their wild northwestern province to turn over Osama to the US.  Osama is also a hero and brother-in-arms to the Pakistani ISI (their equivalent of our CIA) - they are likewise not inclined to turn him over to the US, no matter how much money we offer for his capture.
 
The other reported reason for US interest in controlling Afghanistan was a proposed oil pipeline through their difficult mountainous teritory, but this seems to have been abandoned as impractical.  Now, we have settled on the rationale that establishing more military bases in Afghanistan would better let us control our access to the vital oil wealth of neighboring countries (Iran and Kazakstan, in particular).  And, of course, there are the vast profits from the heroin trade now that Afghanistan has become the major world supplier of not only raw opium, but also pure heroin. All this while being occupied by US and Coalition forces! The brother of our Afghan presidential puppet Karzai has a known history as a heroin kingpin, just to make the picture a little clearer.
 
How strange and complicated the web we weave!
 
Let me boil all these players and events into a simple "horseback analysis" that the average American can understand: You, dear taxpayer, are paying for this whole show! 
 
* You paid our CIA to build Osama bin Laden(the son of close business contacts of the Bush family) and the Taliban up (see "Ghost Wars" by Steve Coll ) - now you're paying whole nations to go through the motions of eliminating him and his threat to our corrupt way of doing business in the Middle East and beyond. 
 
* We pay for our Afghan and Pakistani puppet leaders to go through the motions of trying to kill or capture OBL and his supporters, though their deepest sympathies are with him and his cause. 
 
* Our Saudi allies are funding Osama and radical Islam throughout the world by their donations to various Islamic charities (see "Sleeping With the Devil," by Robert Baer).  

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Pakistan is a nuclear Islamic nation that we provided more than $10 Billion in military and economic aid since 9/11/2001, while they are known to be peddling nuclear weapon technology to the highest bidders, sometimes with high Bush administration officials involved.  (How can the Bomb not fall into OBL's hands?  or is that the next phase of the plan to further lock the American and other key Western nations into this failed strategy of both fighting and facilitating terrorism?) http://antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=12276
 
Finally, some very cynical people in and allied with the US government are raking in huge profits from arms sales, heroin sales, and oil sales - while you the taxpayer are asked to donate your sons, daughters, and money to fund this whole hopeless Kabuki play.
 
Follow the Money, Sonny!
 
The bottom line in this choreographed, make-believe war on terror, is that America and its people are being drained of their wealth and that money is being shifted into the Swiss bank accounts of Saudi princes, oil industry execs, highly placed Neocons on the take for their part in facilitating the profitable status quo that keeps nuclear technology and weapons and illegal drugs in demand/supply balance, but available for a price paid to the right people.  Our country and all of us, thanks to the inflation and debt that will be used to pay for this circus, are going broke.  Broke: as in, new Great Depression-type broke.
 
Here's another, more personal Bottom Line: Your kids, husbands, grandkids, wives and friends are dying in a futile attempt to change what can't be changed because there is so goddamn much money involved!  Can't you see it, Mr. and Mrs. Good American Citizen?
 
You are being played for a sucker and a chump, while the Bush family eats caviar with the rich folks who are profiting off your losses.  Our government can't be bothered with replacing our infrastructure and helping our victims of natural disasters because Bush AND Pelosi would rather funnel that same tax money to their favorite causes and corporations - and YOU'RE NOT AMONG THEM!  
 
It seems that one branch of our gargantuan government doesn't know (or believe) what the other branches know.  Has no one in the Pentagon or the White House, for that matter, read the conclusions of David Walker, recently resigned head of the Governmental Accounting Office (see Walker's presentation at ConcordCoalition.org), that essentially our US government is facing unavoidable bankruptcy within a few years due to out-of-control spending on entitlements and the military?
 
Does anyone remember the double-digit inflation we endured in the late 1970s, after our binge of printing money to pay for both war on the poor in Vietnam and a War Against Poverty here in the USA?  (Word of advice: If you don't know what really happened in the past, none of the present news will make proper sense.  Question your sources: Take nothing at face value!)
 
Oh, I forgot that Vice President Dick Cheney has said that, "Deficits don't matter."  Well, obviously, when we consider his experience as CEO of Halliburton, gorging itself at the trough of federal contracts, he perhaps had never experienced a fiscal shortfall or deficit.  So, in his limited experience as a CEO, hired for his political connections and not his management experience, Dick Cheney is not qualified to tell us whether deficits matter or not.  He wouldn't know. 
 
The US is cruising toward a financial iceberg that is beyond the ability of our government to avoid with more borrowing.  The "full faith and credit" of the US government is looking very suspect to international financiers, haven't you heard?  But Captain Bush is shouting, "Full speed ahead!"
 
What amazes me is that there are still average citizens who can look at the same outward reality of a failing strategy in Iraq and Afghanistan... and enlist.
 
Every time I pass the Post Office of our little Oregon seaside town, and see the flag at half-mast, I wonder how Americans can continue to allow their children to volunteer to die in such an obviously losing cause.  I'm sure they would call me a coward for refusing to fight in an earlier failed war that accomplished nothing, but that's all right with me.  If refusing to play Russian roulette in Vietnam is cowardly, but volunteering to kill men, women, and children in Afghanistan is bravery, then at least I am a living coward and not a dead fool.
 
I personally think it takes more guts to live free than it does to volunteer for a suicide mission.  But what do I know, I'm not a dead "hero"?  It is pretty strange when we practically deify those who kill on the whim of the President, and demonize those who obey the law of God (or, if you prefer, the Geneva Conventions).  I can live with my choice.
 
It is strange that our country, which broke away from Imperial England in a revolution which we celebrate on July 4th, now fights to prevent other nations from choosing their own way - and calls it "promoting Democracy."
 
For those who don't mind dying for what will be seen as a losing cause ten years from now, step right this way.  The Army recruiter will see you now.

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Paul Kemp awoke to the realities of American politics as a Conscientious Objector and war resister during the Vietnam era.  He is an entrepreneur and writer who lives in the Pacific Northwest. He welcomes feedback through his website, http://defending-your-retirement.blogspot.com/. 

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