If the Boston Globe can be believed, slightly more than half of those polled favor President Obama's decision to send 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan. A quick perusal of the numbers will reveal a certain incoherence on the part of the public regarding the U.S. presence in the region. On the one hand, while most do not think the U.S. should pull out, many have reservations about the cost of adding troops. And almost no one agrees with the 2011 timetable for withdrawal. I'd like to assure those who harbor that specific concern that they need not worry, the 2011 timetable, which makes no sense on the face, given the U.S. pending troop surge, is merely another empty pledge that will bear no fruit.
And also, for those who have serious doubts about the utility, not to mention morality, of the U.S. presence in Afghanistan-far too few according to The Gallup Poll numbers provided by The Globe- there is none, save for tapping into enormous heroin profits, keeping the price of oil higher than it ought to be-which helps out almost no one in the U.S.- and last, but perhaps not least, justifying continued wasteful spending on the military. Oh, and I almost forgot, having a lot of military personnel and machinery on the ground in Eurasia is helpful at disrupting the plans of China and Russia, who, unlike The Taliban and Al Queada, actually pose a demonstrable genuine threat to U.S. global hegemony.
2 comments:
Both the personnel and the machinery are worn down after 8 years of harsh climate. If Russia or China were to do something, they'd have an edge on "freshness." But I don't see anything there really.
The second coming of the Cold War with Russia seems to have eased off. Mendeleev (sp?) has actually been somewhat cordial, especially when compared to Putin.
China is still spying on us but also continues to buy our debt, thus funding our exercises in nation building in the Middle East while simultaneously fiscally destroying our own. I'm not seeing a military move out in Central Asia on China's part. Their economic moves in Africa continue, however. But one day, when they feel they can rely on their internal markets, they'll stop buying our debt and/or retake Taiwan/Formosa and call our bluff on defending that island.
The Chinese and Russians are going to "secure" the region through other means than ones the U.S. is employing presently.
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