I Have the Answer
NPR (All Things Considered) is devoting an entire hour of programming today to the war in Afghanistan. The show was prefaced with a comment something like “We don’t have all the answers.” Well, I have the answer: Get out! Get out now before one more Afghan dies, before one more U.S. soldier dies, before one more dollar is spent. Get out now. Like Vietnam, we will eventually get out. The question is how many more Afghans will die before we do? How many more U.S. soldiers will die before we do? How many more billions of dollars will be wasted before we do? And how many more terrorists will we create before we leave? As Daniel Ellsberg recently said, sending more troops to Afghanistan will only increase the Taliban’s strength:
The more troops we put in Vietnam, the more Vietcong were recruited. And, the more troops we put in Afghanistan, the curve shows very clearly from 2005 on, the Taliban has come back having been, as you say, despised and reviled by most of the country. How can it be that they get the degree of support that they do now? One reason only: the number of troops, of US troops that they are fighting.
masmanz
November 5th, 2009 at 10:41 pm
The number of Taliban is on the rise because pewviously we counted only the followers of Mullah Omae as Taliban now we count everyone who is against occupation as a Taliban. Pakistan counts all Pashtuns as Taliban, and as Pakistani military kills more people the number of 'Taliban' is sure to rise. The only sane solution — bring the troops home.
andy
November 5th, 2009 at 10:43 pm
The whole U.S. occupation of Afghanistan was a fiasco from the beginning. Get out now!
RickR30
November 5th, 2009 at 11:42 pm
This assumes, that the global inbred elites actually want peace and stability. Their decisions and answers show that the goals rather are constant war of all against all, destabilization, political turmoil, cultural disintegration, and every other evil imaginable.
Peaceful_Idiot
November 6th, 2009 at 1:10 am
It's cool we will be leaving soon according to Bonkers Bolton, Peace Laureate Obama is a neoisolationist<a />. This is great news!
Too bad nobody cares about crazy liar Bonkers Bolton's crazy lies.
George Bush
November 6th, 2009 at 1:34 am
Hmmm….Does this mean freedom is NOT on the march???
Lester_Ness
November 6th, 2009 at 1:45 am
But then we'd have to give up our vanity! As well as our assumption that it's really a basketball game and that if we keep trying, we can get the last two points and "win!"
Lester_Ness
November 6th, 2009 at 1:46 am
Too bad Bolton won't be the last survivor staggering into Peshawar with the news of the last stand.
Peaceful_Idiot
November 6th, 2009 at 1:49 am
ain't no hubris like our hubris.
Heathcliff_Maw
November 6th, 2009 at 3:10 am
We need to stay to protect the opium crop from the Taliban.
JJJ
November 6th, 2009 at 9:10 am
what about the pipeline? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trans-Afghanistan_Pi...
G.W. Bush will be very angry to have his 8 years of Presidency and 5 years as the Governor of state of Texas amount to nothing. For Gods sake the man has worked for 12+ years that we know about trying to get this thing built. Doesn't that matter to anyone. Where is his return on his investment?
Orville H. Larson
November 6th, 2009 at 2:57 am
Get the hell out of Afghanistan or, in the alternative, send only chickenhawks to fight it.
ginko
November 6th, 2009 at 12:02 pm
Hello
I think your answer is good enough for Afghan and U.S. soldier.I also agree with you.Thank you very much for sharing this with us.Keep up the good work.
Lear K
November 6th, 2009 at 11:33 am
AS long as the American citizens keep a blind eye to the horrors that war brings to everybody,they will continue to cheer on endless wars and see US soliders as hereos !
Lear K
November 6th, 2009 at 11:41 am
“billion “defense” spending that goes to private companies. In American “capitalism,” an amazing amount of taxpayers’ earnings go to private firms via the government. Yet, Republicans scream about “socializing” health care.
Republicans and Democrats saw opportunities to create new sources of campaign contributions by privatizing as many military functions as possible. There are now a large number of private companies that have never made a dollar in the market, feeding instead at the public trough that drains taxpayers of dollars while loading Americans with debt service obligations.
Obama inherited an excellent opportunity to bring US soldiers home from the Bush regime’s illegal wars of aggression. In its final days, the Bush regime realized that it could “win” in Iraq by putting the Sunni insurgents on the US military payroll. Once Bush had 80,000 insurgents collecting US military pay, violence, although still high, dropped in half. All Obama had to do was to declare victory and bring our boys home, thanking Bush for winning the war. It would have shut up the Republicans.
But this sensible course would have impaired the profits and share prices of those firms that comprise the military/security complex. So instead of doing what Obama said he would do and what the voters elected him to do, Obama restarted the war in Afghanistan and launched a new one in Pakistan. Soon Obama was echoing Bush and Cheney’s threats to attack Iran.
In place of health care for Americans, there will be more profits for private insurance companies.
In place of peace there will be more war.”
http://www.counterpunch.org/roberts11062009.html
guest
November 6th, 2009 at 8:07 pm
NPR= Nuanced Propaganda Radio
andy
November 6th, 2009 at 11:25 pm
Bolton. The biggest wacko there is. In a class by himself.
Peaceful_Idiot
November 7th, 2009 at 12:04 am
It says a lot when you are so extreme you make the neoconservatives blush.
Ignacio
November 7th, 2009 at 4:22 am
When has there ever been peace or even a time of sustained peace? When has there been an organization (political, social, religious, civic) that has neither mistakes nor corruption? What culture has never had the need to protect itself? What is your plan for peace? If every conservative were to disappear today, the liberals would fight over what remained. If every Muslim vanished today, the Christians (or Buddhists, Hindus, etc.) would fight for dominance. Human interaction causes conflict; it always has. How do you propose a Muslim country provide for its security? How does it protect itself from outside aggression? Internal aggression? How about a third world country? What is a viable security plan for an emerging country? People do not get along, neither do cultures. The best we can hope for is to coexist. When was it that the world did not experience some form of armed conflict? I don't argue with comments about the cost adn the the horrors of war. I have never heard of a realistic model for a secure peace.
Ali
November 7th, 2009 at 11:43 am
Thank you Laurence Vance. You are the first one on Antiwar.com to put the murder of Afghans before the death of Americans, and American dollars, in the same sentence, twice. Congratulations! Although I hate to think that, that is the greatest "price" America has had to pay for its wars.
人人可建粉丝组组长
November 7th, 2009 at 12:17 pm
爱，不只是一个字；
也不只是一句承诺；
更不只是一次性行为；
爱是一生一世。
对民主的爱是和平抗争，
甘愿受苦，
无怨无悔，
直到永远。
（按照臭名昭著的北大教授孙东东的说法，这叫“偏执型精神障碍”。我（何健）认为将孙东东这样的“坏东东”送进大陆疯人院或者出口海外完全符合中国的国家利益。）[经典]
——摘自《何健语录》，欢迎转载，谢谢支持！
paulBass
November 7th, 2009 at 5:55 pm
^google translate.
Love, not just a word
Is not just a commitment;
More is not just a one-time act;
Love is the whole life.
The love of democracy is peaceful protest,
Willing to suffer,
No regrets
Forever.
"In accordance with the notorious Beijing University professor Sun Dongdong would call a "paranoid mental disorder." I (Jian) considered that the Sun Dongdong such "bad east" madhouse, or sent to mainland China for export overseas in full compliance with China's national interests." the classics
Excerpt from "Jian Quotations", welcome reproduced, thanks to support!
引起注意或表示兴趣、人人可建粉丝组组长
嗨有非常好的有你在这里，我们欢迎您的意见，但我建议你使用的iGoogle翻译的职位，使所有的美国人，我们不知道可以共享。
我希望它翻译好所以不存在误解
男子名
James
November 8th, 2009 at 2:20 am
The war in Afghanistan will eventually be wan by the party that have more stamina and can hold its breath longer. Afghans men are at their best when they are fighting and they are fish in water they don’t need to hold their breath. What a shame for people who join the arm forces in the western world the must be desperate….think.
J Radocy
November 8th, 2009 at 4:05 am
Other than end slavery, Free us from English rule and Stop the Nazis and Imperial Japan. War has done nothing.
J Radocy
November 8th, 2009 at 4:12 am
You go on about Health Care. I agree with Health Care for Americans. Fix Social Security and Medicare first and have at it. If a manager ( The Federal Government) runs a single store into the ground why would you give him a Bigger store ????? common sense
Poor African
November 8th, 2009 at 2:28 pm
…"The question is how many more Afghans will die before we do? How many more U.S. soldiers will die before we do? How many more billions of dollars will be wasted before we do? And how many more terrorists will we create before we leave?…" Great post! I hate war! Thanks very much for sharing!
Andy
November 8th, 2009 at 8:51 pm
Your saying the right thing for the wrong reason. The REAL question is could these things have been done without war? The British empire ended slavery a full generation before America did. And ended it peacefully. The Nazis never would have been, without the peace treaty of Versailles which was only made possible by Wilsons' tragic an idiotic intervention in the Great war. Japan never wanted war with America and was baited into atatcking us. As for rule by England, constitutional change could have been achieved without violence. Wouldn't you say that Canada and New Zealand are more peaceful then America?
uykstbrr
November 9th, 2009 at 12:03 am
zqIZcp xoqhtspeltlw, [url=http://fucdbetbvwxn.com/]fucdbetbvwxn[/url], [link=http://nembmpncvyzp.com/]nembmpncvyzp[/link], http://pihnotvvivuy.com/
Robert
November 10th, 2009 at 12:30 am
England ending slavery without war in no way equates to that happening in the US. It's a convenient and simplistic reasoning but misguided. Equating the dynamics of Canada and New Zeland to the colonies plight is once again convenient and simplistic. Japan didn't want war with the US is maybe arguable…they wanted to extend their reach without being confronted.
Andy
November 10th, 2009 at 3:08 am
You think the USA doesn't want to "extend its reach"?
Robert
November 10th, 2009 at 2:02 pm
Of course the US wants to extend its reach. What nation, culture, religion, organization, etc. does not? It is the way human groups interact. Extending reach is how groups survive. Is there a historical model or example contrary? If so, it is most likely an obscure group or a group that lacks the capacity to protect itself and especially the most vulnerable of the group. Extending one's reach is not inherently a bad thing. Inevitably groups are going to clash; peacefully, violently, or otherwise.
Andy
November 11th, 2009 at 6:17 am
Hitler called it Lebensraum.
Robert
November 11th, 2009 at 2:12 pm
You did not answer the question. I am sincerely interested in a sustainable model that promotes peace and provides security for itself. I'm not looking for negative interaction. Rather insight and understanding with someone who perhaps sees the world different than I do (Hitler's world view is not helpful to me).
Robert
November 13th, 2009 at 7:54 am
The war in Afghanistan was the most useless and terrible war. Top management of USA made a lot of money on it while a huge number of ordinary people were killed.
movie downloads
November 13th, 2009 at 1:00 pm
The conversations about any war are endless. Billionaires continue to make a lot of money on them and that's why nobody can stop them. I suggest to take a break and try to download movies online at least. I'm sure you could make your mood better and enjoy!
movie downloads
November 13th, 2009 at 1:00 pm
The conversations about any war are endless. Billionaires continue to make a lot of money on them and that's why nobody can stop them. I suggest to take a break and try to download movies online at least. I'm sure you could make your mood better and enjoy!
movie downloads
November 13th, 2009 at 1:00 pm
The conversations about any war are endless. Billionaires continue to make a lot of money on them and that's why nobody can stop them. I suggest to take a break and try to download movies online at least. I'm sure you could make your mood better and enjoy!
Knows all truth
November 17th, 2009 at 7:25 pm
simple man with a simple answer
knows all
November 17th, 2009 at 7:28 pm
boohoo bush feel the real pains of life, peacfull idiot needs me