It was wrong when we invaded Afghanistan. It was wrong when we invaded Iraq. It was wrong when Obama approved increases in troop levels in Afghanistan and Iraq. And it is wrong for him to now to approve a delay in the withdrawal of forces from Afghanistan. None of these actions has served or will serve the national security interests of the United States; all were and are doomed to failure. As was said of the murder of the duc d'Enghien, these are worse than crimes, they are blunders. As deliberate acts of an imperial power, they are self-defeating mistakes. This last decision by Obama is an act of stupidity.
I leave entirely to one side the question of the morality of our national policy in the Middle East.
Absolutely right, Bob. What really gets to me is how the government and the press succeeded so well in morphing the Taliban into some kind of terrorist group to be fought and killed by our troops, special forces, and drones, rather than a perfectly legitimate Afghan political group who should never have been driven from power and replaced by a Afghan government subservient to us and kept in power only by the United States occupation.
ReplyDeleteRobert Shore