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Will the New Administration Pursue a Futile War in Afghanistan?
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by Frieda Gardner, W A M M
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Like empires before us, we seem prone to repetition. It’s as if the military, diplomatic, and economic structures underlying our national life for at least 50 years have paralyzed our political imagination.
Every time a journalist uses the word “smart” about Hilary Clinton’s State Department or Barack Obama’s foreign policy objectives, my heart sinks. Especially when “smart” is used in connection with Afghanistan, which seems at this hour slated to be America’s next surged-upon nation. True, General David Petraeus, of Iraqi surge fame, has noted that Afghanistan is widely known as “the graveyard of empires.” But then Petraeus also believes we need to supplement our military force with “political and cultural factors as (we, the U. S. and NATO) attempt to build alliances with local tribal leaders, an approach that has worked in Iraq.*
Perhaps Petraeus doesn’t believe America is an empire. Obama and Clinton certainly didn’t use that term during their presidential debates. Mainstream opinion favors a view of America as “exceptional,” off to help rather than to conquer or merely subdue. Yet here we are again, preparing to shift the focus of our vast, expensive, cumbersome, equipment-laden, heroic, murderous, far-flung, thinly spread Armed Forces to the nation that has been spitting out its conqueror-helpers since before Alexander the Great tried his imperial best.
Like empires before us, we seem prone to repetition. It’s as if the military, diplomatic, and economic structures underlying our national life for at least 50 years have paralyzed our political imagination. We can say “new” and “change’’; we know that the forms of force we’ve been using have fostered rather than hindered the growth of the Taliban. But we can’t get out of the imperial box.
People joke that you can’t be elected U.S. president unless you pick your war and are prepared to do something about it on Day One. But it’s disheartening that Obama, who for all his caution seems equipped, if not compelled, to try new ideas, comes down on the side of 30,000 more troops in Afghanistan and however many more bazillion dollars the new-old job is going to take (and take and take away from our imperiled national economy).
Here are six, highly predictable, recent news items:
• The President has decided to send 17,000 troops to Afghanistan right away. Some are relieved that he’s not sending the 30,000 first proposed by someone on his team. The New York Times editorial of 2/19/09 said Obama “decided that he had no choice” about sending troops.
• Afghani citizens killed in the war grew by 40% in 2008, according to UN report. (The Guardian, 2/17/09)
• In time for special envoy Richard Holbrook’s arrival in Afghanistan, “Taliban Fighters in Central Kabul Kill at Least 20” (New York Times, 2/2/09)
• We’ve added pilotless Predator drones—pride of the Star Wars crowd—to the guided missiles and bunker busters designed to smartly pick out “Taliban fighters,” always of course hoping that Osama bin Laden will be among them. As usual, these devices raise the number of civilian casualties and young people drawn to the Taliban. (Bill Moyers report on “strategic bombing,” http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/01302009/watch.html)
• Last month, The Nation reported that since 2006, 500 Afghani citizens are dying monthly from should-be-outlawed cluster bombs. (see Hightower, **)
• Oops! According to the GAO, we’ve lost more than one-third of the 242,000 light weapons donated to Afghan forces by the U. S. (“Light” includes AK-47s, mortars, machine guns and rocket-propelled grenade launchers) (CBS & Huffington Report, 2.11.9)
More than six years. More than $28 billion spent on this war. And, apparently, not much time or money spent getting to know the people of Afghanistan, whom we feel so free to turn into collateral damage. Obama’s inaugural declares that “America is ready to lead once more,” but stopping to pay attention to actual circumstances, to listen to Afghani citizens, to ask questions, with modesty born of failure, of those who have tried to construct schools, hospitals, roads, civil service offices—these are more compelling and promising leads than posturing about American leadership. Of the $28 billion, $23 have gone to military action. And much of the remaining five billion was given to contractors like Dyn Corps, well known for the ignorance and incompetence of its “advisers.”
As Jim Hightower points out in his recent Lowdown, alternatives to militarism in Afghanistan abound, though you don’t hear about them on CNN, or from most of our legislators.
We in the peace and justice movement are often depicted as the most idiotic of repeaters—out there on cold mornings shouting NO and GET OUT. But look at Dennis Kucinich’s 12-point proposal for peace in Iraq. Its emphasis on reconstruction, reparation, and pleas for the help of all —and especially regional—nations offers an embodiment of Change We Can Hope For—even in Afghanistan.
The President has told his people to devise a strategy for Afghanistan (and Pakistan) before his trip to NATO in April. Before then, let’s hope the smart staff of the new administration refuses the imperial and fast-failing Repeat button and feels compelled to take some risks. Meanwhile, we can get on the web, write and call and make noise about the promising alternatives. Look at the resources below. There are a lot of ideas behind our “NO.”
** Craig Whitlock, “U.S. Officials Offer Dismal Review of War in Afghanistan,” Washington Post, 2.2.9*
** I’m especially indebted to Hightower’s 4-page issue (v. 11, no. 2, Feb. 09) for its compact, comprehensive Afghanistan issue. The two websites on alternatives are from his “Do Something!” box. www.hightowerlowdown.org
Notes:
Frida Berrigan, “We Arm the World,” In These Times, Jan. 2009, 13
Robert Dreyfuss, “Obama’s Burden,” In These Times, Jan. 2009, 20-24
Marilyn Young, Bombing Civilians: a 20th Century History (forthcoming)
Peter W. Singer, Wired for War: the Robotics Revolution & Conflict in the 21st Century
Resources and suggested articles:
http://getafghanistanright.com/
Rethinkafghanistan.org
The World, PRI, 2.2.9 segment on Afghanistan featuring Claire Lockhart of the Institute for State Effectiveness, http://www.effectivestates.org. Also, google “Solutions for Afghanistan”
Obama, Please Be Smart About Afghanistan http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/127399
Editor, “Don’t Escalate in Afghanistan,” The Nation, 2.23.9. |
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Cost of War
Army suicides spike in January, may surpass combat deaths
The Army is investigating a stunning spike in suicides in January. The count is likely to surpass the number of combat deaths reported last month by all service branches.
According to figures obtained by the Associated Press, there were seven confirmed suicides last month, compared with five a year earlier. An additional 17 cases from January are under investigation.
There was no detailed breakdown available for January, such as the percentage of suicides that occurred in Iraq and Afghanistan. But just one base — Fort Campbell in Kentucky — reported that four soldiers killed themselves near the installation, where 14,000 soldiers from the two wars have returned from duty since October. Some Fort Campbell soldiers have done three or four tours of duty in the wars.
Yearly suicides have risen steadily since 2004 amid increasing stress on the force from repeated tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan.
—2/5/09 Associated Press
http://www.chron.com/disp/dispcomp2.mpl?cid=13215432
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© 2009 Women Against Military Madness. All rights reserved.
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Complete March 2009 Index - click here
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