The Peace Movement Is Stepping it Up
If I ever get cancer, I want Barack Obama to tell me I'm dying. He could probably convince someone like me who does not believe in the supernatural that death is life.
He certainly did his best on Tuesday night to convince the American public that war means peace, and escalation means withdrawal.
President Obama is not President Bush. He is a much more effective and eloquent advocate for American militarism who makes his case in ways that will challenge people who oppose war. He does not seek to merely energize his base, as President Bush did, but more to nullify and confuse it, something he is not only doing on war but on health care, banking, climate change . . . seemingly every issue he touches.
In his new Afghanistan war plan he tried to give everyone something. He gave General McChrystal and the war hawks what they want à ‚¬" tens of thousands of more troops. He gave the majority of Americans who oppose the war what they want à ‚¬" a promise, however vague, to begin withdrawal in 18 months. He told Pakistan that the U.S. will be there for them and escalated the war in Pakistan without clearly saying so. He gave the corrupt President Karzai the protection he needs to stay in office. Everybody's happy, right?
Well, not exactly. In fact, promising all things to all people seems likely to make no one happy. But, it may confuse people enough so that Obama gets the war funding he needs to escalate the wars in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
From the perspective of a peace voter, I can say, I'm not happy. It makes no sense to send more troops to Afghanistan. U.S. intelligence estimates that there are 100 al Qaeda left in Afghanistan. Do we need 100,000 troops to defeat them? Obama is concerned about the momentum of the Taliban. Aren't more air strikes, killings of civilians and a larger presence of U.S. forces going to be a recruiting tool for the Taliban? And, with more than 10% unemployment, nearly 20% underemployment, record foreclosures, rising bankruptcies and record debt à ‚¬" how does it make economic sense to borrow more money to pay the $1 million per troop cost of escalation? Wouldn't it be better to come home, America?
As to the promise to begin withdrawing troops in 18 months, this was the only thing different from what President Bush would have done in Afghanistan. It is consistent with Obama's style of trying to give all sides something and he coupled it with the escalation:
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