He made the trip, he declared, "to help Afghans forge a hard won peace." We''ll return to that quote in a moment.
But first let's look at some recent news stories from the Afghan war, already the second longest in US history, and see why this Public Relations venture was necessary.
*With March not even over, US troops death in Afghanistan are mounting at twice the rate they were last year. For wounded, it's even worse--triple the early 2009 rate.
*The Dutch government collapsed in February because it refused to withdraw its troops from Afghanistan. Now the withdrawal is commencing and new elections are scheduoed for later in the spring. Canada says it will pull out next year.
*US troops keep shooting innocent Afghans from convoys and checkpoints. General McChrystal said in a videoconference; ""We have shot an amazing number of people, but to my knowledge, none has ever proven to be a threat." Gunning down civilians is a war crime.
*For all the anti-corruption talk, occupation forces are under orders not to interfere with opium growing in Marja and other contested areas.
*The cost is enormous. The White House estimates it costs one million dollars to put one soldier or marine in harm's way in Afghanistan for one year, including transport, food, housing and equipment. One million dollars. And by September there will be 100,000 troops there. That's a hundred billion dollars. A year.
And what might a victory in this unjustifiable war look like? That's where Obama's odd little quote about forging a hard won peace comes in. There is, as repeated Pentagon studies show, no way for the US to win a military victory in Afghanistan. The US is trying to weaken the Taliban and allied warlords (people it portrays as evil, evil, evil) enough to force them to negotiate and become part of the Afghan government! That's a hell of return for all the deaths and all the billions being invested.
