Glad to see you writing about the Afghan disaster. A poll yesterday showed that 2/3 of Americans want the U.S. completely out of Iraq and Afghanistan — not the partial withdrawal of so-called “combat” troops that Obama promises but a real withdrawal. See http://fdlaction.firedoglake.com/2011/03/09/two-thirds-of-americans-favor-full-withdrawal-from-iraq-and-afghanistan/. But since the U.S. has not gotten out of the Philippines, Germany and Asia from previous wars, I doubt the American empire plans to leave the Middle East! In fact, it looks like we are getting prepared to go into Libya for so-called “humanitarian” reasons, also known as their very sweet, easily processed oil. Some of the highest quality oil in the world.
Iraq is off the news pages, Obama told us we could turn the page after-all claiming he ended the war, in fact we still have nearly 100,000 troops and private contractors (aka mercenaries) in Iraq. And, another Vietnam analogy is that the U.S. is currently fighting a third front war — Pakistan. This is a somewhat secret war being run by the CIA.
Somewhat secret because the secret leaked out in an explosive way when a Blackwater mercenary working for the CIA was arrested after killing two Pakistanis. He was found with a GPS, photos of what looked like targets, weapons and a cell phone with the number of the leader of al Qaeda in Pakistan. The suspicion of Pakistanis is that he was sowing division in Pakistan as the U.S. was accused of doing in Iraq — divide and rule has always been a top strategy of countries that occupy others.
The great embarrassment around Pakistan and the arrest of Blackwater mercenary Davis was President Obama saying to the U.S. media that he was a “diplomat” and “diplomatic immunity” needs to be respected. In fact, Obama knew he was a mercenary working for the CIA. Even more embarrassing, the NY Times and other media outlets knew he was not a diplomat but did not tell their readers when they reported Obama’s false words. It showed the dishonesty of government and the media in our “democracy.”
But then, wars are often started by lies and continued by lies. Lies and war go hand in hand.
K. Z.
