President Obama trapped himself with his speech double-downing on the war in Afghanistan as a war of necessity on August 17th to the Veterans of Foreign Wars no less. He couldn't reverse course without bringing all his rhetoric (his main strength?) into repute. What would he have left? Whenever he said anything, we would all say let's wait and see what he does, and ask, has he thought this through or committed himself to a course that he later might wish he hadn't?
The main point is, as Frank Rich makes in his column—Obama’s Logic Is No Match for Afghanistan—today, Sunday, December 6, on the OpEd page of The New York Times, we are not willing to pay for this war AND we can't afford it ... not in treasure or horribly in the lives and blood of some of this generation's best and brightest, selected to go to war because they are.
The shear incongruity of the cost to us vs. the cost to Al Qaeda is insane. Al Qaeda is bleeding us dry, bringing us to our knees as a great nation and our leaders can't see it? One hundred in the tribal areas of Pakistan costing what? $1000 dollars a year each? ... against 100,000 in Afghanistan costing $1,000,000 a year each?
While our infrastructure crumbles as we fail to modernize our nation, educate our children, or take care of our sick and elderly? When the real "war" for global supremacy is waged in economics and by the example of building a modern nation, educating children, and taking care of the sick and elderly ...
Just one statistic, over 2,100 suicides among our military since the latest Iraq War began, should give our leaders pause.
While suicide bombers continue to blow up themselves and their victims around the globe.
Sunday, December 06, 2009
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