We Aren't Getting Out of Afghanistan or Even Iraq!

[ProudDad]

The Evidence Is Overwhelming: We Aren't Getting Out of Afghanistan or Even Iraq
By Tom Engelhardt, Tomdispatch.com
Posted on November 14, 2010, Printed on November 15, 2010

You must have had a moment when you thought to yourself: It really isn’t going to end, is it? Not ever. Rationally, you know perfectly well that whatever your “it” might be will indeed end, because everything does, but your gut tells you something different.

I had that moment recently when it came to the American way of war. In the past couple of weeks, it could have been triggered by an endless string of ill-attended news reports like the Christian Science Monitor piece headlined “U.S. involvement in Yemen edging toward ‘clandestine war.’” Or by the millions of dollars in U.S. payments reportedly missing in Afghanistan, thanks to under-the-table or unrecorded handouts in unknown amounts to Afghan civilian government employees (as well as Afghan security forces, private-security contractors, and even the Taliban). Or how about the news that the F-35 “Joint Strike Fighter,” the cost-overrun poster weapon of the century, already long overdue, will cost yet more money and be produced even less quickly?

Or what about word that our Secretary of Defense Robert Gates has officially declared the Obama administration “open” to keeping U.S. troops in Iraq after the announced 2011 deadline for their withdrawal? Or how about the news from McClatchy’s reliable reporter Nancy Youssef that Washington is planning to start “publicly walking away from what it once touted as key deadlines in the war in Afghanistan in an effort to de-emphasize President Barack Obama's pledge that he'd begin withdrawing U.S. forces in July 2011”?

http://www.alternet.org/module/printversion/148848

[eleny]

1. So long as people keep enlisting it'll go on

The way it ends is with a draft, oddly enough.

edited to add: k&r

[ProudDad]

2. Or a simple order from the "Commander in Chief"... (n/t)

[de novo]

3. War is truly bipartisan, it seems.

[jeanpalmer]

4. Obama has locked himself into these wars

He can't get out, and isn't motivated to do so. We need a President who will get us out. Obama's next move should be to announce he's not running in 2012, to give us two years to nominate and elect someone who will get us out of these wars, and do the other things that he should have at least started to do.

[polichick]

5. If Obama is truly locked in, then yes, he should step aside...

I think he can change his mind at any time.

But if his true agenda is actually more in line with the mic than with the voters, he'll stay right where he is.

[babylonsister]

6. How do you know 'he can't get out, and isn't motivated to do so'? Do tell. nt

[gateley]

7. To be fair, he was hesitant and took time (despite the criticism)

to make his decision regarding sending more troops to Afghanistan. (Thanks to Joe Biden!) Unfortunately he went with the Military's proposal, but it wasn't automatic. We'll see what happens now.

[TheWraith]

9. The reality distortion field is strong on DU tonight, it seems.

:eyes:

[Holly_Hobby]

8. And the jobs aren't coming back either

Surprise, surprise.

[ProudDad]

10. Read Basevich' "Washington Rules"

It explains all...

Why Obama is just following the same path followed by them all since WWII...

It's the "Permanent War Economy(tm)" and when it ends, corporate capitalism will endure its final collapse...