Today Lindsy Grahm is asking for permenant bases in Afghanistan - the question is why? Is it really about Afghanistan and Terrorism, or is it becuase of China? Creating military bases in Afghanistan will help US watch China - but that is the wrong approach for the 21st century.
Looking at the news headlines from Afghanistan for the past 3 years we can easily see that not much has changed.
There is corruption, attacks on Taliban, attacks by Taliban, civilian deaths, blaming Pakistan, praising Pakistan - basically more of the same. Wikileaks reveals many of the corruption and disfuction charges in the entire middle east.
The challenge is monumental. Afghanistan has a very high illiteracy rate - Close to 80%. People are in basic survival mode. Given all this it is naive to think that reforming Afghanistan is a 5 year project! We have been there for ten years and not much has changed.
The question is can we afford to waste billions of dollars on war - alienating the entire world to maintain the status quo?
The best hope for the middle east is to help Iran become a democracy. Iran offers the most educated and progressive population in the middle east. A free and progressive Iran can help transform the entire region.
This is apperant from the heroic resistance of the populace to the brutal regime.
The way to fight china is to build our own infrastructure and foucs our energy on education. War has not paid off and never will - It is time we remember Ikes words - Beware of the military industrial complex - and change course. Education and democracy is a better way to go. We can not force change by bombing people.