Penjihad's Blog

"To comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable"

Peace Prize, Obama and the Muslim World

First published Dec 21, 2009. It grieves me to acknowledge that Obama is more of a flex-politician and less of a statesman that I had hoped he would be, his speech this evening was certainly the gung-ho type of speech that pushed the audience forward, but no one knew where, for how long or why. I was reminded of the recreation of facts that the Republicans used to do through King George the Worst and his three Knights of Darkness, Cheney, Rumsfeld and Ashcroft/Gonsales.
Here was Obama starting his speech by saying the Afghan “War!” was not one of our choosing, like Hell it wasn’t!
I will grant that the Taliban were a terrible group of people, but they HAD agreed to hand Ben Laden over if the US presented clear evidence of his involvement in 9-11, but we say we did not recognize the legitimacy of the Taliban and so, we had no need to present any evidence to them; they had better hand him over.
Then the Taliban said they would hand Ben laden to a neutral third country and the US could extradite him after presenting evidence to that country, again we rejected that offer on the same grounds and proceeded to give “War!” a chance.
After we blew whatever rocks there were left in Afghanistan (after our other war in Afghanistan against the Soviet Union), to pieces, we placed the Northern Alliance and our paid (and totally corrupt stooges) in power; the Northern Alliance was about the only other group that could and often did, rival the Taliban in cruelty and slaughter. Karzai, our ex-CIA stooge, was placed as the new President while Zalmay Khalilzad, the erstwhile negotiator between the Taliban and American oil interests, was placed as Viceroy-Ambassador.
We are leaving Iraq to the Iraqi people“, really? what kind of shattered, divided, self-destructing Iraq are we leaving “to the Iraqi people”?
We have reduced Iraq from the most advanced Arab nation to a pile of rubble, destroyed any semblance of infrastructure or law and order, removed women from participation in government, breached impossible gaps between Shia, Sunni and Kurd, carpeted the entire country in deep layers of Depleted Uranium, killed almost two million people since the beginning of our sanctions and the first invasion (car-bombs and suicide-bombs are the responsibility of the occupier…us!) and NOW, “we are leaving Iraq to the Iraqi people“!!!!?
Obama tells us that the focus of the “War!” problem is in Pakistan and Afghanistan (“Af-Pak” as they like to say). This is because influential Indian lobbies have convinced the Administration to leave India out of the discussion. Unfortunately, without a settlement between India and Pakistan, neither will desist from interfering in Afghanistan (each wanting their own man in power as a counter-weight against the other). Thus, somehow the US will eventually manage to bribe and bully their way into papering the problems over and then do their famous disappearing act, leaving the festering to continue and finally start eating the three countries again. We will then throw up our hands in horror and say they just cannot be taught to be civilized!
The problem is now Pakistan’s as well. Thanks to the US killing machines (drones and soldiers) entering Pakistan at will and killing at random, the number of Pakistanis who hate America are growing exponentially. But what they hate even more, is the fact that Pakistan’s leadership is actively helping to kill its own people at America’s command, for dollars and guns; Pakistan is now being torn apart from the inside as factions take to arms against the completely corrupted Pakistani leadership.
We have spent billions of dollars creating an inept Afghan Army and a corrupt Police system. The MUCH smarter thing to do in Afghanistan (AND in Iraq!) would have been a US guarantee of protection against any foreign attack, no military and a first-class, well-paid and well-trained Police force. Had we done that, I feel certain there would not be the “insurgent” problem either in Iraq, or in Afghanistan AND people would have been able to walk around without fear of being shot or blown up. Unfortunately, such a Police force (and no military) would have left our Military-Industrial sponsors and the corrupt leadership in Iraq and Afghanistan, EXTREMELY unhappy.
As for drug-production in Afghanistan. We know it is a crop that has become the only way for the poor farmer to support himself and since they have been doing this for a long time, they are unlikely to stop on a dime, especially when the only alternative we offer are grain and other seeds that will leave the farmers destitute. So why not let them grow all the opium they want with the condition that they WILL sell it to us right at the farm? This will be cheap because certainly the drug smugglers do not pay the farmer much money, we can turn it into medicine and destroy what we do not use and even then, save a lot of interdiction money and a lot of Americans from taking the stuff.
Why not try it?
“Cancer”. Am I the only one to hate this term when used for people?
I see more and more politicians and bigots using this term to describe anyone and anything they do not like, from REAL (Muslim) terrorists, to (Muslim) extremism, to Muslims and Arabs and Islam itself. I then wonder how soon someone will suggest the beginning of the “eradication” program which makes killing the “Cancer” a righteous act…our Jewish cousins should know what I am talking about, Hitler used to say Jews are like TB Bacilli and moved to eradicate them.
Pakistan. For all the rhetoric about redefining the US-Pakistan relationship to one of “mutual interests, mutual respect, and mutual trust“, Pakistan has never failed to get the US boot on its willing butt while India gets the goodies. We may remain willfully oblivious to this fact, but even the most illiterate Pakistan is keenly and painfully aware of this…ask anyone on the Pakistani street, even the beggar.
The analogy between Vietnam and Afghanistan is not far off; as long as we continue to move with the idiotic blindness that has long become our hallmark, we will never be able to resolve issues in Afghanistan and eventually, we WILL cut and run…as we always do. It appears that we do not have the guts for a sustained effort to fix the problems we create, preferring to boast about our post-WWII nation-building successes…that is where it stopped.
Having successfully and completely destroyed Afghanistan’s capacity to govern itself peacefully, we are setting the stage for another getaway by saying, “It must be clear that Afghans will have to take responsibility for their security“.
Break their legs, put them in concrete boots, throw them in the river and then curse them for not being able to swim for themselves…as we walk away.
Torture. Well, as King George the Worst’s henchmen would have said, “it all depends on what you mean when you say ‘torture'”. It seems that while Obama had banned torture, he had obviously (perhaps erroneously) said he was banning torture at all CIA and US sites…NOT specifying Special Ops prisons where they are apparently still continuing with “enhanced interrogation and information extraction” techniques that would be the envy of the Inquisition.
Of course we have not sought world domination, who would dare say that was ever our goal during the interminable Cold War period?
Now, can we PLEASE get back to creating a GOOD healthcare program for America? or, have corporate and political greed swallowed that one too?

March 27, 2010 - Posted by | Afghanistan, At Home in the US, Islam, Israel, Pakistan, Terrorism, Torture, US Foreign Policy | , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

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