Richard Holbrook – Stop this war!
By louisehartmann
You need to know this. President Obama released his Afghanistan war strategy review this morning. In it – the President claims the timeline for troop withdrawal in July of next year is still on track – though the pace of withdrawal is still uncertain. A US military presence is expected to be in the region until at least 2014. Most of the news is good - we've taken more territory and knocked off most of Al Queda. But the review summary warns that many of these advances can quickly unravel if more is not done to combat insurgents coming across the border from Pakistan. In addition – there is little acknowledgment within the report of how corruption in the Afghan government continues to undermine US efforts. Which raises the question of exactly what we are fighting for in the country? Are US troops dying to prop up a corrupt Karzai government? Americans think so according to a new ABC News/Washington Post poll that shows disapproval of the war at an all time high – 60%. While President Obama may point to individual targets that show improvement – the war as a whole is deteriorating. That’s because – despite the whitewashing in the strategy review – 2010 was the bloodiest on record for the United States. And that’s after more than 9 years of sustained combat in the country. Listen to the American people Mr. President – and listen to the final words of your chief diplomat, Richard Holbrook – Stop this war!
Comments
#2
Didn't the Russian lesson get learned by anyone.
you can't win in Afghanistan so why are we there?
Get out and use those $$$Billions for 1 years and $$$Trillions for 10 years, back home and use it to create infrastructure and jobs
Thanks Thom for all you do for the middle class, I should say "working class"
#3
We need to get out of Afghanistan before one more American soldier gets their feet blown off !!!!!!
#4
Holbrooke is right, of course. He waited too long to speak his conscience.
Holbrooke had a lot to answer for. He was on the wrong side of history in East Timor when he offered arms to the corrupt Indonesian government and 200,000 civilians were slaughtered.
Then there was Biden's push to war Senate meeting in which Holbrooke pimped the Iraq war and dissenting voices were disinvited.
He is credited for brokering the Bosnian cease fire but not before he supported bombing them.
Whatever else he was, he was no diplomat unless you are referring to threats and bullying that WikiLeaks has shown us, now passes for diplomacy.
Why are we there? $$$$$ The top 1% don't want to settle for 90%. They want it all. Megalomaniacs almost never pay attention to history and never think they are going to lose.
#5
I have just returned from Kabul where I spent a month working with the Afghan midwives at Rabia Balkhi Women's Hospital. To pull out now would be an absolute disaster. Yes there is corruption in Afghanistan but there is also corruption in the US. Corruption is how humans do business in the absence of structures to prevent it. Corruption is not effective and it will decrease as models that work are put in place in partnership with Afghans. The focus of progressives must be to fight corruption in the US. A constitutional amendment to prevent corporate funding of elections is vital.
Just like the economy, the situation in Afghanistan is not good because of the years of the Bush administration where policy was based on economic benefits for those who hold economic power. But it takes more courage to work with a situation and improve it than to walk away.
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Mrs. Hartmann, you've hit a home run! Moreover, how on earth does anybody believe you can win any kind of war, much less one dealing with an insurgency when you're the opposing team playing in the insurgent's ballpark. He has the last-at-bats, much like our revolutionary soldiers did in the Revolutionary War, the Communists in Vietnam and in other similar historical situations. All they have to do is sit, stock up, wait it out and when we go, in they'll come and undo everything our men and women fought, bled and died to prevent. This is Obama's biggest mistake. If he's going to win this, he's got to make a decision to win it using our resources and not let a corrupt namby-pamby like Karzai call any of the shots when it's our bodies coming back in boxes who've make it possible for his swarmy rear to keep occupying his presidential throne. (Let's leave him a white porcelain variety when we do pack up and get out. It'd serve him well.)