All hail the chief as he brings home the troops from Iraq — but don’t say anything about the growing use of robot drones on the expanding battlefield of the war on terror.
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The end is near, finally, but only after thousands were killed in Iraq, civilians and soldiers both, the nation’s standing was damaged and our democracy was irreparably damaged.
The end of the war in Iraq, however, does not end the American imperial project. We remain entrenched in Afghanistan, with that war bleeding — literally — into Pakistan, and new military efforts taking place in Africa.
So, the president might deserve applause for ending the Iraq War, but let’s not fool ourselves into believing he has suddenly transformed into a peacenik. Bring the rest of the troops home and then we can talk.
The war is over in Iraq, but we’re keeping 50,000 people there? Somehow, I just don’t see how that adds up to over.
The troops are coming home, but no one should believe that the war has come to a close.
Sen. Ben Nelson, the conservative Democrat from Nebraska, is pushing the idea of funding the war in Afghanistan by selling government bonds — borrowing an idea that worked well during World War II.
But as this piece points out, the economy has changed, making the bond sale problematic.
More importantly, the Afghan and Iraq wars are not very popular; any funding mechanism based on a voluntary contribution is going to fail.
If we believe these wars are necessary — they aren’t, but if we want to fool ourselves into believing they are — we should be honest and pay for them out of our budget the way we pay for everything else.
Hank Kalet 