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I really don’t know what I think about Obama’s speech last night on Afghanistan or his decision to send in tens of thousands more troops. In my heart, I want us to pull the fuck out of there immediately and stop trying to be Team America: World Police.
But when I step back and think about the alternatives and how things could be different, the image of John McCain and/or Sarah Palin making the decision instead of Obama scares the living daylights out of me.
A reader at the Dish frames it well:
McCain, who was so glib in attacking Obama during the campaign for offering nothing but platitudes, said he didn’t agree with Obama’s approach because it “emboldens our enemies” and “we have to stay until we win.” Well, those are helpful guideposts, and basically what the strategy has been in our two wars for the last eight years that has pretty much gotten us nowhere. I then got to thinking about McCain and his choice of running mate, Sarah Palin. I thought about what it would be like if she were President and having to determine a policy and give a speech in a situation similar to Obama’s. That thought literally caused me to shudder. And the fact that McCain chose Palin as a running mate, and a sub-segment of the current Republican party believes she actually has the chops to hold the highest office in the land shows the type of judgment that will now allow a left-leaning moderate like me to even consider voting for a Republican anytime soon.Say what you will about Obama and his decision. The reality is that this would be much much worse with a different skipper at the helm.
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Fast Food
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Leave it to TBogg:
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DOWN THE VINE
Syndication
all I heard was "nation build, nation build, nation build" for 30 minutes
but to your point, if McRage was president, would of been much worse
If she didn't quite first, because of an ethics violation.
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I would hope that our efforts (as moral humans and participants in the American political process) would not be hobbled by the spurious logic behind the idea proposed by this framing -- -
- -we can occupy a country, butress the narco-political leadership in that country, expect to see further deaths of 'coalition of the willing" men and women and expect to see hundreds/thousand of additional civilian deaths (you know- collateral damage) all because something much worse may have happened if the odius SPalin was VP or President…?
c'mon folks- are we actually congratulating ourselves for sending young Americans to kill and be killed because we can do it so much better than Palin???
I think the John Wayne Gacey made a similar logical contortion when he heard that Jeffrey Dhamer was eating the people he killed…
here's an idea (encapsulated in the famous Gandhi quote) -- "Be the change you want to see"
particle61
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The situation is much more complicated than it seems and definitely too complicated for sarah palin to understand. The war in afghanistan is not one that can be "won". I think the Obama administration still understands the situation better than the republicans . We are seeing changes in their way of dealing with us. When Hilary Clinton came to Pakistan , although her visit was short still she utilized it pretty well. She did a number of debates with our top journalists on tv who asked many difficult and critical questions . The way she answered them and took all the questios and criticism tactfully and gave replies to them was wonderful . I myself watched many of her interviews on tv. She went to a number of mosques and shrines . She showed her respect by covering her head going there. These are the things that mean a lot to the common man here. For me , it was a refreshing change that she pronounced “Pakistan” correctly unlike other Americans . lol
Your comments today in this post are amazing! I am not exaggerating when I tell you this but we in the US never hear this kind of probing and intelligent insight from the perspective of people living in Pakistan or Afghanistan. It's largely a function of our corrupt and sensationalist media culture that we have. I really think that people here in the US need to hear so much more of the insight you have to offer. Seriously. You are doing better work with just a few long, insightful paragraph than thousands of American "journalists" do on a daily basis.
Would you mind if I posted your comments from this post as a post all by themselves? People really need to hear this and consider the human lives we are impacting in a region of the world we as Americans know so little about.
On a related note, I know I asked this before (and please don't think I'm am putting any pressure) but would you please consider sending in analysis and insight like this to us from time to time as a guest blogger/contributor. I know you expressed concern about your English, but it's amazing -- better in fact than a lot of Americans I know. At any rate, I would be happy to clean it up for you and post it on your behalf.
Please do let me know. And shukriya (big time!)
The aid that is coming from America , for the first time is going to NGOs instead of the pockets of our corrupt politicians . They will get some part of it but the fact that any part of it will be going directly to NGOs too is amazing. Although the common man can still not be won by just these measures as the history of mistrust goes back to decades but these measures still do aleast some part in easing the tension. Increasing troops in Afghanistan might help a little but you need to understand that Pakistan is at the centerstage of this whole drama. Some Taliban in Afghanistan are locals but most of them are foreigners and we all know that a huge number of them come from Pakistan who are trained at here. Whenever the America launches a full scale military offensive against them , they just come here to Pakistan which they consider a safe haven and as soon as things get better there they go back .
. Even if they are stopped from escaping to Pakistan by tighter border control and lets say all of the Taliban are killed in Afghanistan , more will be recruited from these same madrassahs and extremist training camps from Pakistan. America keeps launching drone attacks from time to time in our tribal areas which have been effective but have caused a large number of civilian casualties as well. What needs to be done is better intelligence services and attacking the militant safe havens and training grounds in Pakistan secretly in association with Pakistani government. This goal can be achieved with the help of American intelligence agencies. It is true that Pakistani government needs to do more in fighting these terrorists. Unfortunately our politicians are just as bad as the military dictators. I do believe that the government in some ways is trying to make things bad here to get more aid from America which obviously wont go to the people but to the pockets of the politicians themselves.
Some people do believe that some or even most of the bomb blasts in Pakistan are actually arranged by the government so they can show to the world and especially America that “look what Taliban have done and what they are capable of and what they can do to you also , so give us more and more money in aid and funds that we can use to fight Taliban” . Most of the money in fact goes to their own pocket and little goes to do what it was given for. The government of Afghanistan lead by hamid karzai is also very corrupt. He is sometimes called the “the corruption king”. Until more schools and hospitals and factories and jobs are created in afghanistan and the quality of life of afghans is improved , no real change can come. Sometimes they become Taliban because that’s the only option they have. Also there are a number of madrassahs still operating in Pakistan who turn regular people who just want to get knowledge about islam into terrorists. Even in a lot of mosques , the Friday sermon is more America bashing speeches than anything related to islam. There are religious shows and channels on tv that preach extremist ideology and urge people to take up arms.
Nothing is being done about them by the Pakistani government . All that is very important , because nobody can deny pakistan’s role in the war that is going in Afghanistan . There is a lot of social unrest here in Pakistan. The poverty , unemployment and inflation are out of control. People are selling their children and committing suicide because they cannot provide for their families . It is much easier to persuade a person like that to take up arms to go on a “road to heaven” than someone who actually has some part of his/her life in control. Our mullahs come in all shapes and sizes , hair styles, beard styles and clothing to cater to the religious needs of all social strata. It is more like a business. The other day a more modern looking mullah on tv with a shorter beard and a pant suit with few sentecnces of English sprinkled here and there in his speech was urging young people to India as it was the prophecy of prophet Muhammad . This is so frustrating that these type of psychos are allowed to spread their message of hate and war on tv with no restrictions .
So America should urge Pakistani government to do something about these mullahs and madrasshas and tv channels also who are misleading people , recruiting more Taliban and making things worse for America in afghanistan
It is very nice to hear from you again. Unfortunately we have a very big problem with restricting access to religious views on the airways, even though it can obtain short term goals, the long term effects can produce another pre-revolution Iran state propped up by secret police. Also what you describe seems to fit with American right winged religious TV.