Vox points out that NRO has found the elephant in the middle of the room -
People often have a very difficult time understanding the finer points of these conflicts and get lost in trying to 'simplify' it. I have maintained that most issues are incredibly easy to understand IF you can get access to the relevant info.However, seeing as how certain individuals have a vested interest in making sure things go the way they want, it is not beneficial to them to allow things to continue, shall we say, unguided. (To this end, tens of trillions is spent managing things.)
Usually this is where another commenter and I will part ways solely due to the fact that these individuals are only interested in confirming what they already believe to be true, not in what the facts say. Perhaps it's this exact sentiment that caused Solomon to write "Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter:" in the book of Ecclesiastes.
We were attacked on 9/11/2001. There is no doubt to this fact.
But the question was never answered - Who attacked us? and perhaps more importantly Why?
In the aftermath of 911, the media started investigating and oddly enough, they had 'answers' on the day of the attack. A short time later Bin Laden denied involvement in these atrocities, yet to us, these were just denials. Yet later, another tape surfaces in which 'Bin Laden' suddenly does a 180 and admits to his involvement. Never mind the inconsistencies, one confirmation is all it takes to set the American military loose in your country. Never mind the fact that Bush had the orders to invade Afghanistan on his desk before 911 or that there were already troops in the area waiting to go in.
But like a grieving mother who lost her only son, vengeance is all that mattered to most Americans. We cared far less about the actual human damage then we cared that the 'MIGHTY AMERICA HAD BEEN WRONGED!'. Preachers preached the eeeevuls of those dirty, dirty Muslims, civic leaders hung flags and spoke of solidarity and our young men marched off to war.
Over a decade later, we find ourselves in the same position that the Soviets did in the 80's. Our military has not defeated anyone. True, they have killed plenty, but they have secured little. The country is now turning hostile against our help and our economy is collapsing. Internally, we find ourselves resembling less and less the America of 1776 and more the Russia of 1980.
Yet we cannot see the handwriting on the wall. Why? Why do we struggle to see that which is so obvious to everyone else?
Pride.
No more, no less. We, the People have erred in that we have not been diligent about returning the power that was stolen to us. We have been negligent in our duty to insure that our civil servants to not run amuck, raping and pillaging. Now we face a decision. What do we do next?
The answer is always the same, no matter what the situation is. We do the right thing, consequences be damned. We withdraw from Afghanistan, we withdraw from Iraq. We start our own political war here and home and we clean house! WE hold the Representatives responsible and we incarcerate the individuals who have lied to us and pursued fraudulent activiteis on our behalf.
This is the far greater menace then any existential threat. Only when we have removed the log from our own eye, will we then be fit to remove the speck from our brother's eye.
This is not a Good War.The Real Effect
In other words, I’m with Andy: It’s time to wrap up this decade-long farce, time for both civilian leaders and military brass to take a long, hard look at the demoralizing mess we’ve made in Afghanistan, and to ask how America can avoid such mistakes in the future.
We might start by forgetting the concept of “nation-building” in places where there are no nations to build. The nation-state, it should be remembered, is very much a Western concept, forged over 1,000 years of often painful European history.
People often have a very difficult time understanding the finer points of these conflicts and get lost in trying to 'simplify' it. I have maintained that most issues are incredibly easy to understand IF you can get access to the relevant info.However, seeing as how certain individuals have a vested interest in making sure things go the way they want, it is not beneficial to them to allow things to continue, shall we say, unguided. (To this end, tens of trillions is spent managing things.)
Usually this is where another commenter and I will part ways solely due to the fact that these individuals are only interested in confirming what they already believe to be true, not in what the facts say. Perhaps it's this exact sentiment that caused Solomon to write "Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter:" in the book of Ecclesiastes.
We were attacked on 9/11/2001. There is no doubt to this fact.
But the question was never answered - Who attacked us? and perhaps more importantly Why?
In the aftermath of 911, the media started investigating and oddly enough, they had 'answers' on the day of the attack. A short time later Bin Laden denied involvement in these atrocities, yet to us, these were just denials. Yet later, another tape surfaces in which 'Bin Laden' suddenly does a 180 and admits to his involvement. Never mind the inconsistencies, one confirmation is all it takes to set the American military loose in your country. Never mind the fact that Bush had the orders to invade Afghanistan on his desk before 911 or that there were already troops in the area waiting to go in.
But like a grieving mother who lost her only son, vengeance is all that mattered to most Americans. We cared far less about the actual human damage then we cared that the 'MIGHTY AMERICA HAD BEEN WRONGED!'. Preachers preached the eeeevuls of those dirty, dirty Muslims, civic leaders hung flags and spoke of solidarity and our young men marched off to war.
Over a decade later, we find ourselves in the same position that the Soviets did in the 80's. Our military has not defeated anyone. True, they have killed plenty, but they have secured little. The country is now turning hostile against our help and our economy is collapsing. Internally, we find ourselves resembling less and less the America of 1776 and more the Russia of 1980.
Yet we cannot see the handwriting on the wall. Why? Why do we struggle to see that which is so obvious to everyone else?
Pride.
No more, no less. We, the People have erred in that we have not been diligent about returning the power that was stolen to us. We have been negligent in our duty to insure that our civil servants to not run amuck, raping and pillaging. Now we face a decision. What do we do next?
The answer is always the same, no matter what the situation is. We do the right thing, consequences be damned. We withdraw from Afghanistan, we withdraw from Iraq. We start our own political war here and home and we clean house! WE hold the Representatives responsible and we incarcerate the individuals who have lied to us and pursued fraudulent activiteis on our behalf.
This is the far greater menace then any existential threat. Only when we have removed the log from our own eye, will we then be fit to remove the speck from our brother's eye.
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