Americans Learn To Forget

Mỹ Scofflaw

Those who do not understand the lessons of history are doomed to repeat them.

With the US military stressed almost to the breaking point with current commitments around the globe, one has to wonder where these additional troops will come from.

And if you think that the reinstitution of the draft would never happen under this President's watch, think again.

The sheer muscularity of Obama's foreign policy objectives may well make it impossible for him to achieve them without this happening.

You cannot win a ground war from the air; there should have been a bitter but crucial lesson from the Viet Nam War for US civilian and military leadership on that, but it has, apparently gone unlearned.

In another article on Afghanistan from the GLOBE AND MAIL, it is reported that "Tens of thousands more U.S. soldiers may soon be needed in Afghanistan to quell the raging Taliban insurgency, top American generals are preparing to tell President Barack Obama."

However, just where these troops are supposed to come from appears to be a big unknown.

One has to wonder if a draft will be reinstituted in this country to even begin to come up with the numbers potentially necessary to do the job.

The old Soviet Union couldn't "pacify" this area with 500,000 pairs of boots on the ground.

And the reasons the old Soviet Union was in Afghanistan are, essentially, the same reasons the US and NATO are there right now: the installation of pipelines, to control Eurasia's oil, and protect the drug trade, from which so many profit so handsomely.

We are coming, at some point to a "Saigon moment" in Kabul; the only question is when, and how many more American, Afghan, and NATO lives will be lost to this military misadventure. And the most ghastly reality about this war was that the Bush/Cheney administration decided that this war would be "cheaper" than actually paying the Taliban the price they demanded for the pipelines in August of 2001.

I want Bush and Cheney to go on national television, and make that decision perfectly clear to the moms, dads, kids, relatives and friends of our Vets who have died, become permanently physically or psychologically maimed for life, committed horrendous acts of violence upon coming home, or committed suicide as a result of this war. For once in their wretched lives, they should tell the American people the truth.

And a small memo to SecDef Gates: I know of no thinking American who understands the geopolitical outcomes desired here, and supports the US presence in Afghanistan; not one, period, end of discussion.