The 2000th U.S. soldier has died in Afghanistan, killed by an Afghan government soldier working for the Karzai puppet regime in a “blue on green” attack. Afghan government troops are trained to fight the Taliban. The Taliban originated with the mujahedeen, trained and armed by the U.S. during the 1980s to fight the Soviet Union in a proxy war. At some point you have to ask yourself: how do we unwind this mess?
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Ted Rall
Ted Rall is a syndicated political cartoonist for Andrews McMeel Syndication and WhoWhatWhy.org and Counterpoint. He is a contributor to Centerclip and co-host of "The Final Countdown" talk show on Radio Sputnik. He is a graphic novelist and author of many books of art and prose, and an occasional war correspondent. He is, recently, the author of the graphic novel "2024: Revisited."
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Maybe Mitt can make available the Time Machine he used to “retroactively” retire?
Couldn’t he be sent back to 20 January 1977 – when dealing with Pan Brzeziński, one needs room (and time) to manoeuvre ?…
Henri
How do we unwind this mess? Look at the Ramirez take (next cartoon on gocomics) that when the US withdraws in ’14, every US life lost in Afghanistan will have been wasted. And lots of people like Ramirez. If Obama is re-elected, Afghanistan WILL be unwound in ’14, all the ground troops will be brought home, and all the goatherds that need to be killed to mollify the American people will be killed cheaply and efficiently by drones. Of course, as a lame duck, killing goatherds can’t help with re-election, so I assume the goatherds are hoping for Obama’s re-election, or at least they should be.
Since ’41, the US has had an intense aversion to not going to war, which is called ‘appeasement’. War is good profits for defense companies, and they pay good baksheesh.
So when Afghanistan is wound down, there must be a replacement with similar profits.
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The real perpetrators of 9/11 were Gulf Arabs, so the US invaded Afghanistan and Iraq. As Peter Segal said, had Bush, Jr been president in ’41, the US would have gone to war with Bulgaria.
The wars have to be profitable. War on the Gulf countries would not be profitable (they pay the US administration lots of baksheesh). War on Iran would not be profitable.
But they’ll find somewhere that war WILL be profitable, and start a new war there. And by ‘they’ I mean it won’t matter if it’s Obama or Romney, There Will Be Blood.
To michaelwme:
According to the CIA’s “The World Factbook,” Iran has about 20% more proven oil reserves than Iraq and 10-times the proven natural gas reserves.
Oil: http://tinyurl.com/c8glk4k
Gas: http://tinyurl.com/bovm2ud
If an Iraq war (actually 2 wars with an intervening murderous economic sanction) was considered profitable and if war in Afghanistan to construct and protect a gas pipeline was considered profitable, then war in Iran must also be considered not only profitable but inevitable.
Our plutocrats may be bloodthirsty sociopaths but they don’t make war SOLELY for arms industry profits but for the trifecta of 1) arms maker profits 2) stealing resources especially oil/gas 3) blinding the populace with militarist jingoism to allow continued extraction of its tax money to finance realization of 1& 2.
You should also familiarize yourself with this revealing map: http://tinyurl.com/95vq6nl
War on the Gulf States would be extremely profitable, if we killed them all (moved them into camps, whatever), annexed their territory, and seized their oil reserves as US Treasury assets to be used for the good of the American taxpayer.
In defeating the Nazis and the Soviets, the US started believing it’s own hype about being a “force for good.” Or at least, a small group of Military-Industrial-Complex movers and shakers hijacked the profits from war using “force for good” propaganda. Up until that point, we knew how to kick people’s ass and take their shit. Ask the American Indians, the Mexicans, the Puerto Ricans, the Hawaiins, the Philipinos, etc.
We could use some more of that good old fashioned conquest. Kick some Arab assholes off their land and open it up for settlement. 40 acres and a camel. And oil rights.