Stratfor: The 30-Year War in Afghanistan

[Marcus Bryant]

The 70-Year War. Perhaps 95, though there was a reduction of sorts after WWI.

Modern Americans know nothing other than to be on a permanent war footing. This large standing army is relatively new in the American experience, though unfortunately not uncommon. The sun does not set on the American Empire.

Revisionist history places this as firmly in keeping with the American tradition, much as the Founding Fathers were to a man devout Southern Baptists.

The central state with enough military power to dominate any nation on Earth was precisely what the Founders feared. The American character has been irreparably harmed by this, local life regimented to an unthinkable extent.

[Winehole23]

How’s this for a conspiracy of silence? With less than three months to go until Election Day, President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney have successfully avoided saying almost anything about America’s war in Afghanistan. Remember that war? You will at some point, however little the two candidates talk about it.


You can make your own guesses about why the candidates have said so little about Afghanistan—their positions are virtually identical, the economy is more important, etc. My own guess: neither of them knows what to do about the place. In a mere twenty-eight months, the United States is scheduled to stop fighting, and every day brings new evidence that the Afghan state that is supposed to take over is a failing, decrepit enterprise.

Read more http://www.newyorker.com/online/blog...#ixzz23WkhhwwU

[Clipper Nation]

Easy... pull out of Afghanistan, and STOP the uncons utional warmongering, tbh... it only makes things worse, it ruins our reputation abroad, it's prohibitively expensive, and we're losing our liberties....

It's funny how neocons love to bring up communism to this day but conveniently forget to mention that a failed, protracted war in Afghanistan was a major reason for the USSR's collapse....

[boutons_deux]

"failed, protracted war in Afghanistan was a major reason for the USSR's collapse."

plus the collapse in oil prices in the 80s, which was USSR's only source of hard currency.

the VRWC myth, repeated this weekend by Gingrich, that St Ronnie brought down the USSR single-handedly is a huge AND typical Repug lie.