Yesterday's NY Times reported that Barack Obama is leaning toward sending 30,000 additional troops to Afghanistan. This is evidently the "just right" solution, midway between sending the 40-80,000 requested by General McChrystal and the Mama Bear "too soft" proposal of only 20-25,000 more. It appears that no one of importance in the administration of last year's "peace candidate" is arguing against escalation, let alone for the rapid withdrawal the situation demands.
It's not a surprise, of course. The handwriting has been on the wall for months. It should be just one more piece of bad news from Afghanistan. The last couple of weeks has been full of them.
59 US troops died there in October, the deadliest month of the war yet for this country's military. The death toll among other occupation forces and the Afghan population is also climbing toward new highs.
One of the two presidential candidates in Afghanistan's run-off, scheduled for November 7, Abdullah Abdullah, dropped out, saying the result was fixed, just as it had been when US-installed Mohammed Karzai "won" the first round in August. The election commission happily declared that Karzai had been "re-elected."
The Times reported that the president's brother, Ahmed Wali Karzai, a kingpin in the country's drug trade, has also been drawing a fat check from the CIA for the last eight years. Afghanistan now produces 92% of the world's opium, the key ingredient in heroin.
Three separate US government reports state that the Afghan military and police will not be ready to "stand on their own" for years to come, even if billions more in resources are poured into training and equipping them.
And now, President Obama is reported to be ready to double down on this unjust and unjustifiable war. Well, the slogan of the Iraq Moratorium has been highlighted by events again: It's Got To Stop. We've Got To Stop It!
Please, take action on the Third Friday or Third Weekend this month. And in December. And next year. It really is up to us.
