Support for the war is ebbing fast on Capitol Hill, even among Republicans. As the Post remarked, " In a debate last week, seven Republicans contesting the party's 2012 presidential primaries were divided about how to proceed, with most calling for the troops to come home." (Italics added.)
However, 200,000 take away 10,000 or 15,000 is not exactly what the American public is hoping for---particularly those who have loved ones stationed in Afghanistan. Mr. Obama will get to meet some of those who have served there on Thursday when he visits the Tenth Mountain Division at Fort Drum, N.Y. Many of these troops have done two or more tours in the Middle East and maybe the President should do less talking and more listening. These are men and women who have seen the ghastly face of war.
Obama---a president whose background check reveals he was a CIA employee and who follows the CIA's hawkish line in foreign policy---is not apt to listen to Senator Levin, the nation's mayors or the American people. The polls have long shown the American public is disgusted with the wars in the Middle East and is beginning to make the connection between the slowdown in the economy, and the terrible nation-wide cuts in public services on one hand with Pentagon spending on the other, spending that tops $1-trillion a year, sucking up 52 cents out of every tax dollar and leaving the civilian sector to fight over the remnants.
Outside of the White House, is it possible to find an American anywhere who believes that the presence of U.S. troops on the ground in Afghanistan is essential to our national security----particularly when we have some 800 bases around the world ready to deploy troops at the drop of a bomb?#
(Sherwood Ross is a Miami-based publicist for good causes who also directs the Anti-War News Service.)
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