Another wordy post

Soap Opera Over Kabul “ Unplugged (abstract) First off this is what I believe. That Bush going into Afghanistan to destroy al-Qaeda and their Taliban host was a correct, honorable, and necessary thing. That going into Iraq because it was an outlaw regime with Weapons of Mass Destruction (that they never had after moving them to Syria) was also a correct, honorable, and necessary thing. That by occupying Afghanistan and Iraq we  effectively isolated Iran, which was and still is the real world threat, and sponsor of Islamic terrorism. A brilliant strategic move. That by January, 2009, even though  congressional Democrats had aligned themselves with every leftist group trying to undermine Bush's policy, the Taliban were deemed effectively destroyed;  al-Qaeda was scarce heard from. That I was spot-on when I said back in 2002 that the United States can never  again prevail  as long as post Watergate brand Democrats have ANY influence whatever in government  I see that sentiment expressed a lot lately. Now, skoonj sent me this Fred on Everything treatment, and expressed "hope someone learns from it."   Call me a curmudgeon, but I see very little chance of that. . [snip] OK. In the Guardian, I learn that actual Pentagonal military psycho-wonks have done a study on what Afghans and gringos think of each other. (report) Saith the Guardian: Please don’t send me growly mail about Our Boys and their courage, training, sacrifice, honor, and the rest of that string of beads. ...  A hit man for the Mafia is exactly as honorable. For another thing, an army’s job is not to be brave, selfless, yada yada, but to win wars.   "One group sees the other as a bunch of violent, reckless, intrusive, arrogant, self-serving, profane, infidel bullies hiding behind high technology; and the other group [the US soldiers] generally view the former as a bunch of cowardly, incompetent, obtuse, thieving, complacent, lazy, pot-smoking, treacherous, and murderous radicals. Such is the state of progress in the current partnering programme. Over a decade of fighting shoulder-to-shoulder had created mutual loathing that was impossible to camouflage.” Who would have thought it? Anybody with the slighytest acquaintance with reality. Tell you what, brothels and cisterns, I could have written every word of it, and I’ve never been to Afghanistan. It’s Viet Nam all over again. Which means that it’s all over, again. GIs and Afghans hate each other. What do you expect when you put combative, not too bright, half-educated, unsophisticated lower-middle-class guys into an illiterate thirteenth-century culture with a history of detesting invaders? I know, I know: you figured it would spark a love-in, koom-bah-yah, Oprah as featured speaker. This comedy occurs because the military inhabits a parallel reality. In its experience, you tell a thing to happen, and it does. [Full]