HERE WE GO AGAIN...

Democratic Senator Carl Levin and Republican Senator John McCain are concerned that

the war in Afghanistan is not going well. They are two of the senators who pressured President

Obama to double down in Afghanistan and add 30,000 troops. They knew the government of

Hamid Karzai was corrupt. They knew his brother who ran Kandahar is a crook and a major

drug trafficker. They knew Karzai was not trustworthy and they knew this is a civil war and a

proxy war with Karzai getting assistance from India and the Taliban by Pakistan's intelligence

service. They knew we didn't have enough troops unless we ratcheted up the forces to Vietnam

levels. They knew 30,000 troops weren't going to overcome that problem. They knew the

Afghan army is a joke and the Afghan police are just organized crime in uniform. Now they

are outraged more progress hasn't been made and guess what their solution is? (Along with

the military in the form of David, I am the Messiah Petraeus.) They are starting the drumbeat

to prevent President Obama from beginning to withdraw troops in 2011. Yep, their answer to

success in Afghanistan is more war, more death, more money, and more disaster. It's the time

to get the hell out of Afghanistan.

Americans are dying in Afghanistan to prop up Karzai's government. In the last week,

the New York Times reports Karzai has told senior Afghan officials he doesn't think American

and NATO forces can beat the Taliban. If that isn't troubling enough, Karzai told two key

advisors he didn't believe the Taliban launched a rocket attack on a nationwide peace

conference. He suggested the Americans might have staged the attack to undercut Taliban

popularity. Soon after, the director of the Afghan intelligence service and the Interior Minister

resigned. The two most trusted Afghan ministers by America and NATO jumped ship out of

frustration.

The American strategy has been to clear areas of the Taliban so the Afghan army can hold

it so Karzai can set up government functions. The Afghan army is useless. We are spending

billions to train them, but have had to cut basic training to only eight weeks; and many Afghan

soldiers are afraid to even tell their families what they are doing for fear of the Taliban. The

Taliban just assassinated an Afghan governor near Kandahar, a key man in America's plan to

stabilize the region. Since the military campaign against the city of Marja, the Taliban has

returned and is carrying out reprisals in the surrounding area and the Afghan army has failed

to stop them. A new British report accuses the Pakistani intelligence service of supporting

the Taliban as a hedge against Indian influence in Afghanistan.

Karzai is unhappy with the U.S. since Obama backed the conclusion of an international

body that Karzai attempted to steal last year's presidential election by stealing over one

million ballots. Karzai has done little to clean up rampant corruption and now analysts think

he may be trying to cut his own deal with the Taliban and with Pakistan, a deal the tribes in

the northern part of the country will never accept; thus pushing the country further into civil

war and instability. Meanwhile, young Americans continue to die at ever increasing numbers.

Levin and McCain clearly want more of our boys thrown into this insanity with their politically

motivated drumbeat to block any rational debate to withdraw them.

Will the American people go along with this again? How does this happen over and over,

war after war? In Iraq, the U.S. ambassador says the country is so dangerous and unstable his

people will not be safe if American troops are withdrawn. The great Iraq victory, which

Petraeus and McCain take credit for, is a nation which can't form a government, gives Iran

unprecedented influence, and the Kurds still want independence. Iraq is in critical condition

and once again there are voices crying to keep more troops there. In Afghanistan, things are

so bassackwards that General Stanley McChrystal is prohibited from referring to the military

assault planned for Kandahar as an "offensive". It certainly cannot be called a battle or attack

either so as not to offend anyone in the city. There is still no definition of victory or how we

measure success. President Obama's exit strategy is now under attack by old white men who

live and breathe to send young American's to their deaths in failed campaign after failed

campaign.

Right now, the American economy is precariously balanced on the head of a pin. More

economic stimulus may be necessary, but there is no money to help out struggling states and

the unemployed because we are spending $10 billion a month, or more, throwing good money

after bad in Afghanistan and Iraq. The Taliban are not a threat to our national security, but

a weak economy is. We are clearly a society lacking priorities.

You watch. First it's Levin and McCain. Then it will be Petraeus haltingly hinting he

might like the troops to stay longer. McChrystal will "leak" his "opinion" that the job is not

yet done and if we don't stay the course then the lives lost so far will be for naught. With an

eye on 2012, the Republican leadership will ratchet up the terrorism threat and how soft

Obama is on our enemies. Hanbaugh and Co., who have never met a war they couldn't avoid,

but love watching other people's children die for their country will rev up the echo machine

telling Americans it's better to fight them there rather than fight them here. This is tired

politics with no hint of honest patriotism, endlessly repeated.

How about a different tune for a change? No more young Americans dying for nothing.

No more propping up corrupt governments whose own people hate them. No more acting

like sheep frightened into supporting a pointless war. No more bankrupting the nation and

no more senseless carnage. Bring them home!! Don't let the President be stampeded! Let

him know we expect him to live up to his word by bringing them home! Soon!!

If Dante is right, and there are seven levels of hell, save level seven for Levin and McCain

and Hanbaugh and the rest of those who will persist in extending this senseless war until the

American people finally rise up and say no more. What do you think? I welcome your

comments and rebuttals. Please send them to lionoftheleft@gmail.com

Note: Sometimes more than one blog is posted per day, so please check previous postings.