Robert Scheer: Obama's Meaningless War
Meaningless is the right term for the Afghanistan war, because our bloody attempt to conquer this foreign land has nothing to do with its stated purpose of enhancing our national security. Full Story »
Posted by Winston Steward - via Huffington Post (Featured)
Mr. Scheer’s is just one of several editorials I’ve read that compare Obama’s commitment to war in Afghanistan with LBJ and Nixon in Viet Nam. Nothing could be further from the truth. First of all, there’s clear evidence that the Taliban is a menace to the United States. After 9/11, everyone understood that removing the Taliban from power was a necessity, not a luxury. We all learned that indifference to Taliban rule is what set the stage for 9/11, just as we all know that if the USA left Afghanistan right now, the Taliban would return to power, not only in Afghanistan, but Pakistan as well. And we all know that that such a development would virtually insure a second 9/11-style attack. During the Vietnam conflict, the stakes were never so high. LBJ and Nixon fought an enemy that had done us no harm, that never attacked US soil, and never threatened to. Obama wages a war against a shadowy group that murdered 3000 innocent Americans here at home, an enemy that vows to do it again. The Viet Cong’s leader and founder, Ho Chi Min, entered politics, not as a hater of the West, but as an academic who believed his nation should be geo-politically non-aligned. Hatred of the West, however, is the Taliban’s very reason for existence. And unlike past Presidents that warred against Vietnam, Obama does not envision a future Afghanistan that walks in lockstep with the USA in all things. Rather, Obama would simply prefer to see the nation led by people who aren’t actively planning our demise. We’d all realize we want that, too, if weren’t so busy dissing everything that comes out of Obama’s mouth, these days. What’s really at play here is that Americans treat the President as if he were a tabloid movie star, to be fawned over when he’s up, and kicked when he’s down. I’m not sure what anyone except Sarah Palin stands to gain by this reflexive nastiness. I mean, who do we want for president, anyway? Mitt Romney? John McCain, Jeb Bush? Would we rather have had James Dobson on the Supreme Court, rather than Sonia Sotomayor? Let’s give the President a break.