A meeting of NATO representatives has
just been concluded in Lisbon,
Portugal. It was
decided that NATO forces will be withdrawn from Afghanistan beginning in 2014 when security
operations will be shifted to Afghan forces. That's no more than a smoke
screen. The Afghan forces, many of which are closely connected to the Taliban,
may pretend they share NATO's objectives but that's quite problematic. It's a
good bet that the U.S. and
NATO will remain in this deepening quagmire for many, many years in their quest
to control the resources of Central Asia.
The fact is that this occupation in Afghanistan is going to get more and more costly for all members of NATO and, especially, the U.S. which is carrying the bulk of the load. Many of you may have heard the saying, "We may go down but we'll go down fighting." If America keeps on doing exactly what it is doing, and refuses to reverse direction, then that's exactly what is going to happen; it (and we) will go down fighting.
This government and our national media
have masterfully played the fear card of constant terrorist threats and have
managed to keep the people of America
trapped in a state of passive submissiveness, all in the name of patriotism.
Those whose aim is to follow an agenda of perpetual war know that they have Americans
boxed into a corner and they intend to keep it that way; if we continue to let
them. They know that there is no way that they can possibly justify these senseless
foreign wars, either legally or morally, so they use the combination of fear
and patriotism as their strategy; so far, it is working.
The American people must break out of
this box. We cannot continue to accept and condone this kind of misguided
foreign policy and watch in silence as the monumental costs tear at the
foundations of our economy, our infrastructure and, yes, the moral fabric of
our nation. It is time to use the power of the people to demand an end to this
agenda of permanent war. It worked before; massive, peaceful protests brought
an end to the Vietnam War, as well as an end to the presidency of Lyndon
Johnson. They can work again.
We are living in a most critical time in
our history. If we refuse to stand up and fight for our country in its time of
great need, then future generations will pay a terrible price for our failings.
And we will have no one else to blame but ourselves because we will have become
our own worst enemy.
Michael Payne
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