Crossposted from Hillbilly Report.
Like many I was against the War in Iraq, but believed we had some business to conduct operations in Afganistan in a responsible way. Now, hundreds of billions and probably over a trillion dollars later it does not feel very warm and fuzzy to be proven right on Iraq, and on the "War on Terror" in general. It also does my ego no good to watch my party continue the failed initiatives of the worst president in American history.
Everyone knows now that Iraq was a fiasco, was lied about and we had no business whatsoever in going in there. It was simply one in the long line of failures that Americans eventually saw through leading to the huge victories of 2006 and 2008. Americans everywhere trusted us to remove these black holes for young American lives and national treasure.
I am not a Republican. I will not stand blindly by while I don't agree with a Democratic Administration and not say anything. I have learned a lesson from recent history and that is if a party follows their leader just because he/she is their leader and blindly endorses their every idea out of loyalty it is damaging to our people, our way of life, our social fabric, and our international standing.
And I apolegize, but the efforts of this Administration in the middle-east are looking hauntingly similar. Hopefully, we really are coming out of Iraq, but that is not the only country in the middle-east occupied. Everyone knows there is an American prescense in Afganistan as well. Now, it seems we are doing what we did in Iraq under Bush there:
An internal military investigation into an U.S. airstrike in western Afghanistan acknowledged that U.S. forces may have killed as many as 86 civilians and said the military needs to re-examine its rules to reduce future civilian casualties.
The report, which suggests that troops need a refresher on how to best use airpower, how to avoid civilian casualties and how to communicate with the Afghan civilians they're being sent to protect, will probably do little to endear the coalition with the Afghans, a cornerstone of the U.S. counterinsurgency plan.
http://www.kentucky.com/...
It now appears that we may very well have done more harm than good as far as winning the "hearts and minds" of the Afgani people but we should know very well soon enough. August to be exact:
The airstrike, in the western Farah province, has drawn the ire of local and national leaders, strained relations between the U.S. and Afghanistan and become an issue in August elections there. Afghan investigations have placed the civilian death toll as high as 140.
Now I will readily admit to everyone that going into Afganistan was the right thing to do to begin with. However, I really believe that ball was dropped long ago. The failures and misled ideology of the Bush Administration and their successful propoganda campaign to de-patriotise opposition to their plans in Iraq virtually assured failure in Afganistan. While the mission may have succeeded if implemented at the right time by competent leadership too much time has gone by and I fear it is impossible to mop up the damage left by the Bush/Cheney crowd.
Right now we are hearing Republicans, and Corporate Democrats in the Senate and to a lesser extent in the House arguing over whether we as a country can afford to provide healthcare to our citizens. These are the folks who most ardently signed on with Bush/Cheney and pushed these "Wars on Terror" upon the rest of us. How many months and hundreds of billions of dollars have gone into that??
I call for my President, and my Congress to end the military occupations of both these countries. The people of Afganistan are having elections and we should let them decide how they want to govern themselves whether we agree with it or not. Iraq was a failure that required a propoganda blitz to get the American people to agree with it. If we have not accomplished our goals there by now, we simply are not ever going to.
I do not want to see my party make the same mistakes I spoke out so ardently against before. Besides, in this time of global recession we simply cannot afford it anymore. We need that money to invest in the American people and building our own country up again. We need not look to the middle-east to do that. Just go to New Orleans, or Detroit or any of many of thousands of rural areas in America.
Please join me and lets let all our Reps, Sens and especially our party leadership know that it is time to end the mistake of a "War on Terror". Invest in America at a time we desperately need them too!!