September 29, 2009
Former president Jimmy Carter, who has monitored elections around the world, recently commented: “Hamid Karzai has stolen the recent [Afghan] election.” Because of widespread fraud allegations, an election recount is presently being conducted in Afghanistan. At a minimum, President Obama should not make any decision on sending more troops to Afghanistan until a new Afghan government is in place. If the new Afghan election results in a corrupt Karzai government, then you cannot ask the American people to sacrifice more American lives and billions of dollars to support a corrupt government.
Americans are already turning against the war in Afghanistan. A recent USA Today/Gallup Poll shows 50% of all Americans, and six in 10 Democrats, oppose sending more troops to Afghanistan.
What kind of “surge” is contemplated? if the soldiers are going to maintain order and to reach out to the people in an accommodating way, that’s one thing. If the soldiers are going in there to greatly escalate our military attacks, then that would be a mistake.
What is the cost of the War in Afghanistan so far? The War (2001–present) has cost the lives of 830 Americans due to hostile and non-hostile actions. In addition, the War has caused the deaths of thousands of Afghan civilians directly from insurgent and foreign military action, as well as the deaths of possibly tens of thousands of Afghan civilians indirectly as a consequence of displacement, starvation, disease, exposure, lack of medical treatment, crime and lawlessness resulting from the war.
And the dollar cost of the War exceeds $227 billion. This amount of money could have provided 67,197,963 people with health care for a year, or provided 100,491,438 children with health care for a year, or provided 1,773,590 affordable housing units for a year. We cannot continue these enormous war expenditures ad infinitum, especially with our faltering economy. This money could be better spent elsewhere.
I am not optimistic that Afghanistan will ever become a functioning government and without a reliable local partner, the U.S. military presence will eventually become part of the problem, not the solution. It is time for the President to announce a realistic exit strategy for Afghanistan, one that is sooner rather than later.
The Hunger Site
October 1, 2009 at 10:27 am
Also, you can’t be serious about this, can you?
“What kind of ‘surge’ is contemplated? if the soldiers are going to maintain order and to reach out to the people in an accommodating way, that’s one thing. If the soldiers are going in there to greatly escalate our military attacks, then that would be a mistake.”
—Ralph E. Stone, right here, in Fog City Journal
October 1, 2009 at 8:14 am
Also, re Ralph Stone, and Jimmy Carter’s, arguments that Hamid Karzai’s government is corrupt, that the recent election in Afghanistan was fraudulent, and, that we can’t afford the war:
Even if the Karzai government and the election were squeaky clean, and, even if we could afford the war, would we want to bomb, dislocate, terrorize, and disinherit Afghani and Pakistani villagers, hugely damage their homelands, and, burn enormous quantities of fossil fuel in the process, so as to control the region’s oil, natural gas, and other mineral resources, and, pipeline corridors? And, to enrich and enhance the power of the military industrial complex?
http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-8257-SF-Energy-Policy-Examiner~y2009m6d7-Gaza
October 1, 2009 at 7:21 am
First of all, let’s remember that Fleet Week and the Blue Angels Air Show are, first and foremost, an all forces military recruitment fest, and, that Barack Obama is now very close to putting 40,000 more pair of “boots on the ground” in the Afghanistan War.
Dianne Feinstein invited Fleet Week and the Blue Angels Air Show here for the first time, in 1981, eight years after the end of the draft, six years after the end of the Vietnam War, and three years after the assassination of Harvey Milk.
Greg, I don’t think we’ve ever met, but if you’d like to walk over to North Beach with me on Saturday and Sunday, I’ll go. I’m planning to a go anyway, even if I have to go by myself.
I’m never able to talk anyone into going anywhere near this thing with me, though they may turn out to get an anti-war suntan in Dolores Park a few weeks later. You can find me on Facebook.
Veterans for Peace may go to hand out information about the GI Rights Hotline to enlisted folks.
A member of Code Pink with a military family background told me that recruiters don’t wear uniforms here because they know that makes San Franciscans uncomfortable. (Military intelligence.)
September 30, 2009 at 10:41 am
Isn’t it ironic grandma and grandpa can hit the streets in protest but 20-40 year olds can’t be bothered.
September 30, 2009 at 8:17 am
Completely agree about Fleet Week. It’s dangerous and costly, besides being a disgusting celebration of war and militarism at a time when the US is ramping up and insane war in Afghanistan.
But is the political will there to stop it? Part of the problem -maybe most of the problem -is with the progressive movement, which seems to have gone to sleep now that Obama is in office. The really sad thing is that I think Fleet Week in San Francisco will eventually end, but only after some horrible accident which will inevitably happen at some point.
To paraphrase Howard Zinn, change doesn’t come from a magnanimous president, or a progressive board of supes. It comes from below. Next week would be a great time to protest this war, and the recruitment-fest for it. Know if there are any going on?
September 29, 2009 at 9:32 pm
Great proposal–ending the imperial slaughter and dislocation of innocent Afghani and Pakistani villagers. But, any ideas?
Seems like you’re speaking to President Obama here, as though you think he’s listening, but President Obama’s in Europe, successfully lobbying for more NATO support for the war, as the world awaits his response to General McChrystal’s request for 40,000 more U.S. “boots on the ground.”
And he just got a big jolt of support for the war in Germany’s election on Sunday, 09.27.2009. http://coloredopinions.blogspot.com/2009/09/end-of-identity-politics.html
And, as we talk about this, San Francisco prepares to collaborate, hugely, by hosting an annual, all forces military recruitment festival, also known as Fleet Week and the Blue Angels Air Show. I’d imagined that San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors, might finally cancel the city’s invitation to the recruit fest this year, because they seemed, at least back in January, very much invested in the promise of the Obama election.
It’s well within the Board or Supervisors’ power to cancel the recruit fest. I’ve urged people to study the FAQs on the Blue Angels Air Show’s official website; I’ve recounted my conversations with aides to Barbara Boxer, Nancy Pelosi, Dianne Feinstein, and Gavin Newsom; I’ve written and posted to Indybay, the OpEdNews, and the SF Bay View, and I’m sure I’ve left explanations here and there in the margins of Fog City Journal. Anyone who still doesn’t understand that the City of San Francisco invites the Blue Angels Air Show here, and can therefore cancel the invitation, should go read the FAQs on the official website of the Blue Angels Air Show, then sit down and think about it, for about a minute.
I have to think that anyone who doesn’t understand this, at this point, just doesn’t want to know.
Canceling the recruit fest would be a hugely consequential anti-war action, and, it would also, therefore, be problematic. James Keyes told me that he had to make his way through 267 nasty phone calls, when working as Supervisor Chris Daly’s aide, after some hate radio jock put Chris Daly’s phone number out on the air, and I’m sure he got phone calls in the middle of the night on his home phone number as well. (But, he wasn’t drone bombed, nor would any of the rest the Supes, or the rest of us be.)
Life would become uncomfortable for Supes and supporters trying to stop the recruitment, but certainly nowhere near as uncomfortable as life for Afghanis, Iraqis, Palestinians, and Africans on the other side of all this.
John Avalos and Eric Mar both seem to take a particularly anti-war, anti-imperial stance in the world, and both seemed to want Obama’s election to fulfill some positive promise, so I’d imagined that one might step forward, but, to my knowledge at least, neither has.
Nor has Chris Daly, who made some effort, and got the 267 hate phone calls, in 2007, but who, also, at least at the beginning of the year, seemed more hopeful about the Obama election than anyone, perhaps less willing to accept more “boots on the ground” overseas, under Obama, than under Bush.
(There are indeed more boots on the ground under Obama than Bush—according to the calculations of both Aaron Glantz and Arun Gupta. And, if Obama approves the 40,000 more troops that General McChrystal has requested, this should no longer require citation.)
There was a lot of talk, at least for awhile after the election, about how Obama had said that “we” had to “make him do it.” Just what he meant by “it” was unclear, since, for one, he had said, over and over, throughout the campaign, that we shouldn’t have gone into Iraq because we “hadn’t finished the job in Afghanistan.”
Were we supposed to make him go finish the job in Afghanistan? I never could figure out what that jingle was supposed to mean, but I don’t know of anything we’ve done to stop Obama in Afghanistan, or Iraq or Africa, and, right now “we,” meaning San Francisco, quite specifically, are about to collaborate hugely, in military recruitment.
And Afghanistan Commander General McChrystal’s desire for more troops is insatiable.
September 29, 2009 at 5:54 pm
Ralph could have also mentioned a CNN poll from earlier this month which simply asked if you favor or oppose the war in Afghanistan. Americans now opposed it by a 39-58 margin in that poll.
I’m proud to say that I opposed it from the start. 9-11 should have been treated as a criminal matter, and we had no right to overthrow a government and set up our own puppet regime, however repugnant the original government was. Now we have another American supported dictator in Kabul, and the Taliban control half the country anyway. And Al-Queda? Still around. I could have foretold all of this in 2002. And I see more disaster in the future.
What I’m particularly disappointed in, is that Obama bought into this war completely. And I’m particularly disappointed in the hypocrisy of (many) on the left. Where are all the massive street protests? Are they reserved for only Republican presidents? Where are the calls for an exit strategy? Actually, some in congress are calling for Obama to outline an exit strategy -I think some 130 Democrats actually signed on to it… but then Pelosi quashed it. It’s hypocritical, and the right is calling the Dems on it. And for once, they’re right.
September 29, 2009 at 3:55 pm
Our original mission if Afghanistan was to crush the Taliban and Osama bin Laden, who supported and plotted the 9/11 attacks on the USA. We need to either re-affirm that mission, or get the hell out. We have no other purpose in Afghanistan unless they ask us to stay.
September 29, 2009 at 3:51 pm
I don’t think President Obama will exit Afghanistan because the right will praise him and the left will stay largely silent. Personally I think the rash of alleged foiled terrorist plots are a cover for continuing the war.