Iraq and Afghanistan
September 14, 2009
Two Purposeless Wars…
The Vietnam War proved a complete waste of money, time and 58,300 American lives along with 350,000 horribly wounded. Subsequently, studies show between 150,000 to 200,000 American veterans eventually committed suicide from their war traumas. Additionally, Vietnam caused countless divorces and fatherless children as well as drug and alcohol abuse that ravaged hundreds of thousands of veterans. Several million Vietnamese died. After 10 years, we vacated Vietnam while accomplishing nothing.
President Lyndon Baines Johnson started the war with his contrived “Gulf of Tonkin Resolution” that created his ‘reason’ for waging war against North Vietnam. In reality, that country suffered a civil war with no threat to the United States whatsoever. I remember my drill sergeant at Fort Benning barking at us, “We pledge our lives to Father Johnson for freedom. Now move out!” Johnson proved one of the most corrupt presidents in U.S. history. When he absorbed the enormity of his mistake, it broke him and he died a deeply depressed human being.
Forty years later, President George W. Bush started the Iraq War with his contrived “Weapons of Mass Destruction” charade that, thus far, killed 4,500 U.S. men and women along with 35,000 hideously wounded soldiers. He “shocked and awed” Afghanistan to stop al-Qaeda’s terrorist attacks while he left our southern border as open as a 24 hour mall—to any terrorist that wanted to waltz into the USA.
Eight years later, our kids serve and die in Iraq and Afghanistan without any purpose, no plan, no exit and no winning against those ancient civilizations. Even their own citizens want America out of their countries. The U.S. government espouses a continuing charade of fighting terrorism, but again, leaves America’s southern border open to one million unlawful aliens crossing annually.
Russia withdrew from Afghanistan after a bloody near-decade of killing its soldiers. For what? Answer: nothing!
Muslim culture sets the benchmark for violence against women and anyone outside that ancient religion. Tribal leaders behead, be-finger, hang and commit many types of barbaric savagery against their enemies.
After eight years, we lost more soldiers in Afghanistan this year than ever before. As we withdraw from Iraq, more bombs last month killed more people than ever before. Why? The people themselves battle one another for supremacy, i.e., Kurds, Sunni and Shiites. The same holds true for Afghanistan.
Last week, George Will said, “Genius sometimes consists of knowing when to stop.”
The United States remains a thorn in the side of world peace. We fight two “Purposeless Wars” for what? Answer: nothing! Except, a few folks make a lot of money!
At $12 billion per month expended for those wars, our Congress drives our civilization into a moral and financial black hole. No one wins or loses—everyone limps away.
Greg Dobbs, Evergreen, Colorado, said, “To retard al-Qaeda as we originally did is one thing. To burden ourselves with costly goals we cannot achieve is another. Now substitute Afghanistan for Iraq. It is their neighborhood, not ours, their culture, not ours, and their history, not ours.”
Michael Jacobs, Aurora, Colorado, commented, “As Kenny Rogers said, “Know when to hold ‘em, know when to fold ‘em and know when to walk away.” Not to walk away at this point and explore other avenues of intervention of influence would be the ‘calamitous mistake’ that historians will take note of in years to come.”
R. Keifer, Arvada, Colorado, “Let us pack up, swallow the neo-cons’ false pride, and try to reclaim what’s left of our nation.”
Finally, “How many people do we intend to kill to obtain whatever is our objective in Afghanistan? The Soviet Union killed a million before leaving…the flight schools in Florida were the training camps that made the tragedy for 9/11 possible. And the individuals responsible were not even from Afghanistan—17 of the hijackers were Saudi Arabians! What threat are these Afghanistans? That is one of the poorest nations in the world. They don’t have missiles, they don’t have nuclear weapons, no air force, they don’t even have a helicopter. What kind of threat to they pose to the U.S. that justifies killing them?”
I agree with George Will, “U.S. forces should be substantially reduced to serve a comprehensively revised policy: America should do only what can be done from offshore, using intelligence, drones, cruise missiles, airstrikes and small, potent Special units, concentrating on the porous 1,500 border with Pakistan, a nation that actually matters.”
Did you notice Will talked about securing Pakistan’s ‘porous’ border? How about President Obama and Congress securing our borders with our military troops?
In the final analysis, Iraq and Afghanistan must take care of their own civilizations and governing in their own ways according to their own cultures. Muslims abhor a republican form of government. Introducing highly sophisticated ‘democracy’ to ancient civilizations cannot and will not work no matter how many people stick their fingers into a bottle of dye and say, “I voted!” Already, in the elections last week with Karzi of Afghanistan, women suffered killings from death squads and Karzi’s supporters stuffed the ballot boxes with tens of thousands of bogus votes.
We must leave Iraq and Afghanistan today or tomorrow. The sooner the better! We cannot keep killing al-Qaeda because they replace themselves immediately. And, it’s their home. They will outlast us. The same would be true if anyone tried to invade the USA, we would defeat them because it’s our country. As a wise Japanese general said during WWII: “We cannot invade America; there is a rifle behind every blade of grass.”
As I said before, staying in Iraq and Afghanistan reminds me of sticking a hand in a pail of water. While in the water, the hand creates change. But once the hand withdraws, the water returns to its original condition. Whether we leave in a year or 10 years or vacated those countries five years ago, it would all return to an ancient culture. Just like Vietnam! In all, three purposeless wars caused enormous death, suffering, cost and global instability. It’s time for the U.S. to pursue the “peace option.”
Frosty Wooldridge has bicycled across six continents – from the Arctic to the South Pole – as well as six times across the USA, coast to coast and border to border. In 2005, he bicycled from the Arctic Circle, Norway to Athens, Greece.
He presents “The Coming Population Crisis in America: and what you can do about it” to civic clubs, church groups, high schools and colleges. He works to bring about sensible world population balance at his website: www.frostywooldridge.com
Frosty Wooldridge is a regular columnist for Novakeo.com
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