Rant of the Day from Gary
RANT-O-THE-DAY
Iraq had a secular and fairly modern society before we wrecked it. Now what they need is freedom: freedom from Americans, so they can rebuild their nation. Afghanistan was a barely functional state before the Soviets invaded. American leadership seems sufficiently incompetent to even recreate that (watch out Haiti!). When will we admit that we are really really bad at nation building. The days of General MacAurthur, Harry Truman, and George Marshall are sadly a long way off in the past. Honestly, given our track record would Donald Trump hire America to do this work? Besides, our real threat is in Wasiristan which isn't in Afghanistan.
MacAurthur's transformation of Imperial Japan into a modern democracy was the greatest foreign policy acheivement in American history. Japan went from a semi-fuedal society to a constitutional democracy where women, who theretorfore were treated pretty much like livestock, could vote in a few years time. Compare that with the "reconstruction" of Iraq which from all outward appearences was masterminded by a combination of Al Capone and Keystone Cops. Obama will learn at his peril that he will be blamed for the idiodic policies of the former administration that he does not radically change. But, silly me, the President doesn't decide foreign policy; the military-political-corporate-complex does. Sadly, the wisdom of Eisenhower (and his farewell warning speech) is also a long way off too. So, a rational person might ask: "Why do armed Americans patrol the streets of Haiti?" Simple: as the saying goes: "When the only solution you have is a hammer every problem starts to look like a nail."