And so it must be, for—sadly—Barack Obama is no Martin Luther King.
This is the test for us: Do we have the courage that Obama lacks to confront hidebound generals corrupted by their medals and covetous of still more power—including the presidency?
Do we have the guts to confront those profiteering from war? We speak not only of the Halliburtons and Blackwaters. We speak also of corporations that covet the huge—we mean HUGE—amounts of gas and oil in countries just north of Afghanistan. ...
Read the complete speech from the candlelight vigil, just outside the military academy, while President Obama announced an additional 30,000 troops, to start an escalation into Afghanistan. Click, here.
1 comment:
What we have here is a classic case of American ethno-centricism. Afghanistan is not a nation that is likely to embrace an idea as historically foreign to them as democracy any time soon (And when I say "any time soon" I am speaking in terms of the next one-thousand years - give or take a few centuries). How can a country be expected to enter the twenty-first century when that same country has yet to experience all of the modern wonders of the nineteenth? This is a really bad idea.
"And it's - ONE! TWO! THREE! - What are we fighting for?"
Country Joe and the Fish
Well, hey there! Come to think of it, that's a damned good question when you get right down to it: Just what the heck are we fighting for? Let us examine the possibilities, shall we?
American interests? It can't be that! Given the fact that Afghanistan's only export seems to be opium, and taking into consideration our fabulously successful war on drugs....Nah! It couldn't be that!
Freedom and democracy? Tee! Hee! Hee! I'm sorry, I was just kidding! The Afghan people are now living under the rule of a "leader" who is now in power because he stole the recent election. Hamid Karzai is many things - you'll get no argument from me there! - Thomas Jefferson he ain't. Trust me on that. Let this be etched in stone: Any country that views its women as inferior beings not worthy of basic human rights is a country not worth one drop of anyone's blood. NEXT....
Aiding a developing nation? In order for a country to be classified "developing", a bit of "development" should at least be moderately apparent. Afghanistan is stuck in the fifth century and seems intent on remaining there.
What are we fighting for?
Let me rephrase that: What are the children of the poor and working classes fighting for? Between you and me, I've only known one person in combat in the last seven years. I don't know him anymore. He was killed when a roadside bomb was detonated in front of the vehicle in which he was a passenger. His name was Irving Medina. He was twenty-two.
What was Irving Medina fighting for?
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Tom Degan
Goshen, NY
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