Everybody Knows

Happy Earth Day!

We have shot an astounding number of people
--Gen. Stanley McChrystal

Everybody knows that the war is over
Everybody knows the good guys lost
Everybody knows the fight was fixed
The poor stay poor, the rich get rich
--Everybody Knows, Leonard Cohen

All frauds have a purpose,
mostly to relieve the unwary of their wealth,
though occasionally to launch some foreign adventure
--Conn Hallinan
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Ranger has largely avoided the hyped Battle for Marjah since there is little of strategic or military importance linked with the endeavor; it is not the moral equivalent of the Soviet victory at Stalingrad.

Secretary of Defense Gates says the U.S. now owns the battle space, whatever that means. Ranger remembers how important were the Korean battles that preserved the South Korean state, but sees no benefit to America other than the Korean wives brought home by U.S. servicemen. These women seem to be the backbone of the AFES PX system, without whom the PX's would not function.

The same could be said of Vietnam. What did the U.S. benefit, save for a plethora of nail salons now evident in every mall in America (next to the also ubiquitous empty storefronts.)

And now General McChrystal is trying to sell us on the upcoming push into Kandahar. But why are the U.S. and NATO planning the action? Why can't Afghanistan secure its own cities?

Global Post ran an incisive essay (4.8.10) on the shell game that is Marjah (Behind the Afghan Fraud.) Author Callahan says, "When the Obama Administration demanded that the Karzai government reinstate an independent electoral commission, plus end corruption—in particular, dumping the President’s larcenous half brother Ahmed Wali Karzai who runs Khandahar like a feudal fiefdom", Karzai went off to Teheran to embrace Iranian President Ahmadinejad, and he further threatens to join the Taliban, "not a happy moment for the Potomac."

Our analysis: Karazai must be on drugs. But maybe Wally K. is the shape of things to come. Maybe ... it is just their country after all, notwithstanding battle space gibberish.

So what is our goal? To solidify the stranglehold of the Karzai family on the country, or to benefit the Afghan people? Is it to benefit the U.S. taxpayers?

Why do Americans continue to support this war that will never produce anything of consequence to America? The war aims and the political ramifications defy logic.

U.S. citizens seem to have more important concerns than who rules Kandahar's feudal kingdom.