Don’t Mention The War: Afghan Follies
It’s gotta be taxing serving as Commander in Chief. Making decisions of worldwide import when all you really want to do is shuck off your obligations and go in search of adventure in Afghanistan. In a videoconference last week with U.S. military and civilian personel stationed in the increasingly fractuous occupied region, the tacit imperialist and inventerate draft-dodger had this to say:
“I must say, I’m a little envious. If I were slightly younger and not employed here, I think it would be a fantastic experience to be on the front lines of helping this young democracy succeed. It must be exciting for you … in some ways romantic, in some ways, you know, confronting danger. You’re really making history, and thanks.”
After six and a half years in Afghanistan, it has become the United States’ forgotten war — increasingly forgotten in recent months as the Presidential horse race has taken center stage. We largely consider the United States’ presence in Afghanistan as a job well done, despite last year being the bloodiest year during the U.S. occupation, Karzai’s regime becoming increasingly irrelevant, a resurgent Taliban, and a GNP built largely upon a heroin trade that was facilitated in a lesser-of-two-evils bid to depose the Taliban. In a Chicago Tribune article from March 15th, Kim Barker details the nation’s woes:
The challenges are daunting: Afghanistan now produces more heroin and opium than the world consumes, the Taliban is able to carry out spectacular suicide attacks regularly, and more Afghans have become disillusioned with both the government and foreign troops. Last year was the deadliest since the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan, with more than 6,500 people killed in militant-related violence, mostly Taliban fighters, according to an Associated Press tally. Insurgents aren’t capable of beating NATO-led forces in combat, but suicide attacks and road mines have managed to give the world and many Afghans the impression that militants are winning, analysts and Afghans say.
Bearing all of this in mind, what dashing adventures did our President miss out last week in Afghanistan? What missed opportunities to demonstrate his draft-dodging derring-do? Take a look at the pins on the map below for a scattering of events in Afghanistan this week.
And during a week when the candidates bickered about a handful of entirely reasonable things said in the heat of passion by Obama’s preacher, how did the fate of Afghanistan figure into the public debate? Let’s consult Google News searches:
Obama + Afghanistan
Clinton + Afghanistan
McCain + Afghanistan
photo credit: mknobil
Well, at least somebody’s talking about Afghanistan, I guess.
Paul M Davis is a Chicago--based freelance writer and is the editor of Is Greater Than. His personal blog and website can be found at paulmdavis.com. View all posts by Paul M Davis.
Without having a lot of the specifics in hand at the moment, I would suggest that support for the Northern Alliance with its habit of boosting Afghanistan’s drug production was not simply a “lesser-of-two-evils” gamble. This may sound overly conspiratorial, but I think the US is quite happy to see the heroin trade back on track in Central Asia. The drug trade is a great way to inject money into “the economy” without having to be accountable for it. We should remember that it was two years ago today that the Federal Reserve stopped reporting M3 money supply, allowing it to basically “print” as much money as it likes without anyone knowing the particulars. In some ways, the drug trade serves the same function, as drug revenues must necessarily be laundered through global financial markets. The current crisis of credit would certainly be much worse were it not for the liquidity provided by drug laundering.
Again, without having any documentation at hand, I have a hunch that the current “Kosovo Independence” situation is being motivated by similar dynamics, as, at least during the time of the Kosovo war, the Kosovo rebels were big players in the drug trade between Turkey and Europe.
22 March 2008 at 8:11 pm