Secretary of Defense Robert Gates conducts a town hall meeting with U.S. troops in front of MRAP armoured vehicles at the Forward Operating Base Bastion in Helmand Province, Afghanistan, May 7, 2009. (REUTERS/Jason Reed)
In the middle of the forbidding Afghan desert of Death ~ a giant 443 acre American military base arises ( Camp Leatherneck ) which will eventually house at least 68,000 troops by the fall and will boast the largest airfield in a combat setting. The war in Afghanistan has now become Obama's war and occupation and it is doomed from the start: Allen L Roland
Afghanistan has defeated every foreign occupying power ~ the last being Russia ~ and now Camp Leatherneck is Obama's direct challenge to the world's most fierce and nationalistic guerilla fighters who are determined to drive us out of their country.
American occupied Afghanistan, like Iraq, is a cesspool of corruption which includes our own Aid agencies. Press TV reveals today the Ugly Truth about Foreign Aid in Afghanistan where exorbitant sums of international aid to Afghanistan are being lavished by Western aid agencies on their own officials in the conflict-stricken country ~ " The high expenditure on paying, protecting and accommodating Western aid officials in palatial style helps to explain why Afghanistan ranks 174th out of 178th on a UN ranking of countries' wealth."
http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22588.htm
http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22588.htm
Mark Vorpahl wrote in Global Research, January 1, 2009, on why the present occupation is failing ~ " The reason for this escalation is because the occupation has been failing when confronted by a growing opposition that is becoming more sophisticated in combating the foreign occupying troops. 2008 has been the most violent year since the Taliban government was toppled in 2001, with a 25 percent increase in soldiers’ deaths who were under NATO or the U.S. command. Recently, Taliban attacks have succeeded in disrupting the route that carries up to 75 percent of supplies to the foreign forces. For all their greater military technology, the U.S. is proving to be outmatched by a homegrown insurgency that is determined to kick the occupiers out .. Consequently, the power brokers in Washington have decided to dedicate more resources to defeat them ~ but at what cost to U.S. citizens? Currently, the Afghanistan occupation is costing U.S. tax payers $2 billion a month. The increase advocated by Admiral Mullen is expected, by some, to nearly double this amount, totaling $3.5 billion per month."
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&;code=VOR20100101&articleId=11570
This is now Obama's war and occupation but is America ready to support another $5 to $10 billion dollar a month War on Terror boondoggle while in the midst of a staggering economic Recession / Depression? Particularly when we are already spending close to $10 billion dollars a month in Iraq.
I think not and neither does Mark ~ " The escalation of U.S. troops in Afghanistan, the continuing war in Iraq, and all the potential effects of spreading instability and more war is beginning to hit the American public hard. They voted for Obama in hopes for a change. However, as a capitalist Democratic Party politician, he has no more ability to fundamentally reverse course than a pig has the ability to fly. As unemployment soars, pensions collapse, health care rots, and the social safety net gets hacked away, the astronomical cost of the U.S. wars and occupations will leave more people questioning the viability of the system we live under. People will begin to pointedly ask, "Why do the politicians spend so much on destruction rather then production? Why are the rich bailed out, but not the workers?" And these thoughts will be expressed by many more people. When a system can no longer provide for its people, while vast amounts of resources are spent on wasteful destructive adventures,
then that system is in all likelihood doomed."
then that system is in all likelihood doomed."
Camp leatherneck is apparently Obama's macho challenge to the Afghans to 'Bring it on' but, like George W Bush's false challenge to the Iraqi freedom fighters ~ it will fail because the American public will not willingly support another economically debilitating occupation, with its rising body count, and the Afghan nation will rise up en masse against the America invaders.
As Winter Patriot writes in uruknet.com ~ " The Obama administration embodies none of the change we were hoping for. We are still governed by Bush/Clinton retreads, neo-con chicken hawks, friends and agents of Israel, and Wall Street bankers. None of these people see anything wrong with the ongoing American imperial project." http://uruknet.com/?p=m54094&;hd=&size=1&l=e
America will meet its waterloo in Afghanistan as all other occupying forces before them have sadly discovered ~ and it just might be the humbling lesson we need to learn.
Allen L Roland
Freelance Alternative Press Online columnist and psychotherapist Allen L Roland is available for comments, interviews, speaking engagements and private consultations ( allen@allenroland.com )
Allen L Roland is a practicing psychotherapist, author and lecturer who also shares a daily political and social commentary on his weblog and website allenroland.com He also guest hosts a monthly national radio show TRUTHTALK on www.conscioustalk.net
