Another War Lost?

Another War Lost? by William Lind via Antiwar.com

William Lind is a former Marine Corps officer who is usually far to the right of me politically. But, he is a very astute writer on military affairs, so I usually read his columns. This one is a very nice analysis of what's wrong with Obama's plan to 'win' the Afghan war. But, its this last bit about politics right at the end that struck me. So, this is the view of rather conservative ex-military officer ....

Here we see how little "change" the Obama administration really represents. The differences between the neo-liberals and the neocons are few. Both are militant believers in Brave New World, a globalist future in which everyone on earth becomes modern. In the view of these ideologues, the fact that billions of people are willing to fight to the death against modernity is, like the river Pregel, an unimportant military obstacle. We just need to buy more Predators.

Meanwhile, the money is running out. The ancien regime syndrome looms ever larger: we not only maintain but increase foolish foreign commitments, at the same time that debt is piling up, those willing to lend become fewer, and we are reduced to debasing the currency. Historians have seen it all before, many, many times. It never has a happy ending.

It appears Afghanistan will be the graveyard of yet another empire.

And the question that we should be asking? Why are we fighting in Afghanistan? As a nation, we are broke. So, why are we even trying to spent billions building a prosperous Afghanistan?

BTW, 'ancien regime' is what the court of King Louis XVI called themselves at Versailles. If you read history of the French Revolution, you'd learn that they spent themselves into horrible debt with silly wars and huge military budgets. They eventually collapsed the French economy to the point where people were starving and fighting to get bread. That led to the 'let them eat cake' comment, and to the French people eventually ridding themselves with such foolish rulers via the guillotine.