Sarah Chayes at Foreign Policy Magazine did an excellent job exposing the reasons why United States efforts in Afghanistan must fail. It is, simply, that Afghan President Hamid Karzai and the enabling US/Coalition policy is utterly corrupt. Within a nation where the key to defeating Islamic extremism was success in our fight against Afghan corruption, American political and military leaders have managed to lose that key.
State corruption and the abuse of power, aided and abetted by the United States government under both George W. Bush and Barack Hussein Obama, has outraged the Afghan people. They detest Karzai, and none of this is lost on the Taliban who will end up winning this conflict. Mr. Karzai won’t be the first national leader to lose his head the moment a foreign influence withdraws from Afghanistan. In my view, Karzai deserves whatever comes his way.
There are those of us who never believed we had any business in Afghanistan. We believed that it wasn’t worth the expenditure of taxpayer money, it wasn’t worth the loss of life, and it wasn’t historically viable. As it turns out, those of us who thought this were right. It brings no pleasure to say it, but it’s true: so many lives lost, so many serious life-changing injuries, so much waste of our national treasury … all for naught.
Sarah Chayes concluded her article with these words, “Only if senior US leaders have the courage to address these questions directly, to arbitrate them clearly, and enforce their decisions, can US foreign policy hope in the future to avoid the tragic waste of lives and effort that has characterized the past decade.”
Our foreign policy has been a disaster for far too many years; it has brought nothing but pain and suffering to our own people, and to retched souls in far away lands who do not share our dreams. This has been going on now since February 1945. Enough is enough. If one wonders why Islamacists are angry with the American people, it is because we keep electing idiots, who compulsively meddle in the affairs of nations and societies where there is no compelling American interest.
Meanwhile, someone from the CIA continues to drop hefty bags full of cash outside the door of Mr. Karzai’s personal residence each and every week … and the American people continue to doze as if none of this has anything to do with them.
State corruption and the abuse of power, aided and abetted by the United States government under both George W. Bush and Barack Hussein Obama, has outraged the Afghan people. They detest Karzai, and none of this is lost on the Taliban who will end up winning this conflict. Mr. Karzai won’t be the first national leader to lose his head the moment a foreign influence withdraws from Afghanistan. In my view, Karzai deserves whatever comes his way.
There are those of us who never believed we had any business in Afghanistan. We believed that it wasn’t worth the expenditure of taxpayer money, it wasn’t worth the loss of life, and it wasn’t historically viable. As it turns out, those of us who thought this were right. It brings no pleasure to say it, but it’s true: so many lives lost, so many serious life-changing injuries, so much waste of our national treasury … all for naught.
Sarah Chayes concluded her article with these words, “Only if senior US leaders have the courage to address these questions directly, to arbitrate them clearly, and enforce their decisions, can US foreign policy hope in the future to avoid the tragic waste of lives and effort that has characterized the past decade.”
Our foreign policy has been a disaster for far too many years; it has brought nothing but pain and suffering to our own people, and to retched souls in far away lands who do not share our dreams. This has been going on now since February 1945. Enough is enough. If one wonders why Islamacists are angry with the American people, it is because we keep electing idiots, who compulsively meddle in the affairs of nations and societies where there is no compelling American interest.
Meanwhile, someone from the CIA continues to drop hefty bags full of cash outside the door of Mr. Karzai’s personal residence each and every week … and the American people continue to doze as if none of this has anything to do with them.
Those suitcases full of cash should never have started in the first place. Karzai has not been a good friend to the us. What has our money gotten us?
ReplyDeleteDebbie
Right Truth
http://www.righttruth.typepad.com
But the military industrial complex is getting rich too, so all is okay!
ReplyDeleteISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF AFGHANISTAN
ReplyDeleteFACTS
1) It's the 15th least developed country in the World.
2) The life expectency is but 42.7 years.
3) The litercy rate is 28%.
4) The per capita Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is $1,000. It's reported that many subsist on $1 per day.
This country is a "throw-back" even by Middle East standards. Corruption appears to be an integral part of their culture. One thing that they have proven to me is that they are 'spooky' and can't be trusted. Our intentions there were probably good but reality says our involvment should extend only as far as needed for the safety of America, if at all. "Nation Building" dosen't seem to work anywhere it's tried in the lands of Allah! Unless we plan to stay there forever it dosen't matter when we pull out. Soon after we do pull out it will revert to the $#it hole it's always been!
OUT of Iraq, OUT of Afghanistan, NO to any effort at Syria, and time to DROP M.E. Conflict Oil for the oil under our very feet.
ReplyDeleteBZ
No nation can long succeed if it does not maintain the moral high ground.
ReplyDeleteWhat Debbie said. There is something seriously wrong with our government.
ReplyDeleteIt's a sad situation when we look at Karzai and see what a corrupted piece of shit he is, with our help and blessing, but then look at our own leaders and realize that THEY ARE EVEN WORSE!!
ReplyDelete