Border politics
October 1, 2008
I supported Bush going into Afghanistan because I thought we were going to capture bin Laden and those responsible for 9/11.
But now I am worried when I hear Barack Obama and others talk about the infamous border between Pakistan and Afghanistan. This border by all accounts is the headquarters for evil and apparently everyone knows it but I guess we need more than seven years to figure out how to maneuver those mountains. I have a problem with Obama’s hubris regarding the launching of targeted attacks against al-Qaeda and the Taliban if the Pakistan government is not cooperative. The problem with this logic is that it sounds reasonable on face value but if President Obama were to decide that the Pakistani government is not doing all it that it can to help root out bin Laden and company, he would have already the justification for launching full attacks against Pakistan. This is because there is not a large intellectual gap from not being cooperative to being part of the problem.
Bush had a tricky relationship with Pakistan’s former President Musharraff because Musharraff was a dictator that promised to help to the US in the so-called war on terror. Of course, we have little or nothing to show for it but now that the US doesn’t have to pretend to like Musharraff, there is a window of opportunity to do what the neocons probably wanted to do all along; maintain a significant troop presence in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. This strategy ensures that America can keep a strategic base near China and Russia, further isolate Iran, and bolster the mutually assured destruction principle with respect to Israel.
I think Obama should not trade Iraq for Afghanistan. In Iraq, we were supposed to secure the weapons of mass destruction that didn’t exist, and then it turned into a war against Iraq, and then we had to stay to catch the terrorists that migrated to Iraq, and now we have to stay in Iraq to not only rebuild the country, but establish a democracy. Senator Obama, I understood the Afghanistan theater to be focused on holding those responsible for the 9/11 attacks. We don’t need to occupy Afghanistan (like we are doing in Iraq) to achieve this goal. Let’s get back to basics.
Stay up fam,
Brandon Q.
Barbara Lee shows why I love Black women
September 14, 2007
Because they often times have heart when no one else does.
What’s even more sad is that I know that none of the current presidential hopefuls would have the heart to do something like this.
One Love. One II.
