I promised myself I wouldn't hang out on Daily Kos before a major policy announcement by this president. It gets ugly.
I mean really ugly.
Wolf spider giving birth ugly.
Turtle Man of Kentucky ugly.
Croc high heels ugly.
Whole family of monkfish ugly.
Ric Flair vs. Hulk Hogan in 2009 ugly.
Sam the mummified wraith-dog ugly.
Sippie cup of milk left in the car ugly. I don't have pics or video of that, but parents know what I mean.
I've got his back! You're a warmongering sellout to have his back!
My back itches!
Hey, man. You've got an open letter taped to your back. It's addressed to Mr. Me, first name "Kick."
The Open Letter Writers Union Local 503 has written you an open letter!
An open letter to celebrity nip-slips! (Oops, that was HuffPo.)
Now's the time where it's justifiably asked, "OK, scrote. You're so smart, what do you think?"
Well, I don't know what I think. I've got eyes and ears, but no crystal ball. I can't see what's in store. While we can and should learn from history, Afghanistan is a unique situation. It can be compared to Vietnam (or other conflicts in history), but it is not Vietnam.
The closest I've seen to encapsulating what I think came from a Kossack named RALM earlier today. I didn't ask RALM's permission to repost what he wrote, but if he or she doesn't appreciate it, I'll remove it. Here goes:
It's a tragic situation but I believe he's trying to make the best of it. Success, however unlikely, is not out of the realm of possibility. We may be able to stabilize Afghanistan.
Considering that Bush & Co. were running the show there for eight years and, while bad, it still not a smoldering ash heap is cause for hope. We are not over there seizing property and crushing religion. The Afghan's may see as incompetent at this point, but I doubt they think we've come to rape their land or make them part of an empire.
Therein lies the difference. The resistance to the Soviet occupation was far more broad-based and brutal than what we have faced and this is because we are not hated. People remember when a soldier desperately tries to save a child and cries if he fails. They remember soldiers show kindness and caring and when an army shows unprecedented restraint to avoid civilian casualties (I know there have been civilian casualties, but we have tried to minimize them). And the Afghans over 30 well remember what a brutal occupation of conquest is like.
Which of you wants to make the decision to turn Afghanistan back over to the Taliban? Who wants make that call to condemn girls and women who went without burquas or attended school to barbaric executions? Which of you will care for their orphans?
These are serious matters that deserve the careful consideration that Obama has given, not the weak-minded ideological, knee-jerk bullshit from both right and left.
If you're against what he's doing in Afghanistan, fine. You may well be right. But don't turn on Obama over it. He's not trying to save face, get re-elected, or serve the industrial-military complex. He's trying to make the best out of the terrible hand he was given and with the best of intentions. He also may be making the right call.
I'm not totally on board with everything in this comment, but if there were a completely satisfactory answer that would sum up the whole of what should be done in Afghanistan, we wouldn't be tearing at each other so -- and the president's decision wouldn't be weighing on him as heavily.
No matter what's decided, how it's carried out and how it's followed through, it's not going to be pretty to watch. No matter what the president does here, it's not going to satisfy my liberal sensibilities fully. But that's the situation he came into office to face. A decision needs making, and he spent a lot of time and energy coming to what he sees as the right conclusion.
What we're seeing now is yet another consequence of when a president kicks the can further down the road for another to deal with. Bush kicked quite a few cans down quite a few roads. Now everyone is saying they're Obama's cans -- rightly or wrongly.
I do believe from what I've seen of this man, our president, that he's a decent man who must make impossible choices. I don't think he takes this at all lightly.
It's an ugly situation, and it inspires ugly feelings all around. So as this president tries to make the least ugly choice for all sides, I'm going to be watching for improvement and looking forward to the end of this war.
We have a president who wants this to end, and has promised to end it. So while we're angered by the hateful prospect of even more deaths in armed conflict, I think it's no small thing to have a president who fully grasps what he's asking people to do.
Anyway, there's going to be some more ugly before this is over, I'm sure. But try to remember next time to maybe take up a hobby or catch up on a good movie instead of hanging out on DKos before a major policy announcement from Barack H. Obama.
Peace