"Can we even tell which party is which anymore?" Bipartisan Stupidity on Afghanistan

[Better Believe It]

Bipartisan Stupidity on Afghanistan
by Ted Rall
Ted Rall, 2008-09 President of the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists, is an award-winning cartoonist and columnist for Universal Press Syndicate. He is the author of 15 books, including graphic novels, political polemics and travelogues about Central and South Asia.
July 7, 2010

The Afghan War kerfuffle that revealed the boundless stupidity of our national political leadership began on July 1st. Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele told GOP donors in Connecticut that the war in Afghanistan could not be won and should never have been fought: "If such a student of history, has he not understood that, you know, that's the one thing you don't do is engage in a land war in Afghanistan? All right? Because everyone who's tried, over a thousand years of history, has failed," Steele said.

Steele's main point is beyond dispute. There's a reason Afghanistan is known as "the graveyard of empires," as opposed to as, say, the "number one producer of tasty, nutritious pomegranates."

Steele's all too typical ahistoricity is in the details. Which he gets wrong.

But it's Steele's "land war" qualifier that really gets me. According to the GOP chairman, the British Army might have spared itself total annihilation in 1842 if it had conducted an air war instead. Using what--hot air balloons?

Then things got really weird.

"This was a war of Obama's choosing," Steele said.

Huh?

True, Obama made the Afghan war his own by sending in more troops. But Bush started this mess. Doesn't Steele remember that? Or--this thought is even more frightening--does he really think WE forgot?

"This is not something the United States has actively prosecuted or wanted to engage in," he continued. This surely comes as welcome news to the tens of thousands of Afghans killed by tens of thousands of American bombs. Chin up. Imagine how many more would have died if the U.S. had "actively prosecuted" this fiasco!

Not to be outdone in the moronitude department, Democratic National Committee spokesman Brad Woodhouse retorted that "we are there because we were attacked by terrorists on 9-11."

Um...We were attacked by Saudis and Egyptians. Who were trained and funded by Pakistanis. None of the major figures linked to 9/11--including Osama bin Laden--were in Afghanistan on 9/11. (Bin Laden was in a Pakistani military hospital in Islamabad.) By 9/11, both Al Qaeda training camps in Afghanistan had been closed. Al Qaeda's operations were based entirely in Pakistan.

Afghanistan had nothing to do with 9/11.

Nothing.

Woodhouse continued: "It's simply unconscionable that Michael Steele would undermine the morale of our troops when what they need is our support and encouragement. Michael Steele would do well to remember that we are not in Afghanistan by our own choosing, that we were attacked and that his words have consequences."

Dubya--is that you?

Can we even tell which party is which anymore?

Read the full article at:

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/07/07-5

[FiveGoodMen]

1. K&R (the R canceled by some bastard, but anyway)

[mike_c]

2. the elephant in the living room is that ANYONE who criticizes the Afghanistan war...

...is essentially correct, because it's a stupid boondoggle with no redeeming qualities whatsoever. That Obama did not act immediately to end it will always be one of the blackest marks against his presidential legacy. It stinks with such an odor that the awful smell is all anyone notices. It's Obama's war simply because it's still stinking up his administration, which is now permanently marked by its fetid rankness.

It's like a game of musical chairs in the outhouse-- whomever has shit on their hands when the music stops is stuck with the consequences of spending time with their hands in the shit pile, whether they like it or not.

[izquierdista]

3. If there's one campaign promise

That should have been broken, could have been walked back and given the boot, it would be to carry on "the good war". But no, Dubya was too dumb, and now we have too smart, Obama thinks he can make a silk purse out of the sow's shit.

[truedelphi]

8. Very eloquently stated.

We have gone from too dumb to too smart. And what we need lies in the middle, and it is called "common sense."

That used to be the hallmark of America's victories. Common sense.

And now it is looked down on, as in, "You can't do that! You don't know what you are saying! Why Experts AA through ZZ says that cannot be done."

[xiamiam]

6. he was give his orders as well..complicated thing being president

lots of opportunities squandered, however..from the onset. the rationale delivered to us re the afghanistan war escalation was such utter bs and the most distinctly different speech I couldnt believe he could even say it..sigh

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

4. It's worse than stupid. It's cold blooded "practical" politics.

Neither party wants to acknowledge another lost war and will "stay the course" until the country is too broke to fight it, or enough GI's come home in coffins to finally piss off the public.

We lost. Get out. Get over it.

[old mark]

5. Hard to tell lthe difference since the Clinton administration, getting worse by the week now....nt

[IOKIYAL]

7. Let's give the WH and Congress back to the GOP and let's find out shall we

[Better Believe It]

9. Did we win the 2008 election?

Hard to tell sometimes, isn't it?

We have far too many Republican party enablers among Democrats in the Senate and House.

Don't you agree?

[frylock]

10. sometimes things have to get a lot worse before they can get better..

and judging by the actions of the democratically controlled congress and whitehouse, that 8 years of bush wasn't quite rock bottom. so yeah, maybe we will find out how much worse things can be when the repubs are back in control, because obama manged to shit away any mandate he may have had to actually enact some form of real CHANGE.

[Better Believe It]

11. But this downward trend has been going on for 30 years!