David Barsamian of Alternative Radio at my neighbor’s house after a showing of Robert Greenwald’s new film, Rethink Afghanistan.
The film horrifying, like any great documentary should be, and helped put into perspective that we (you, me, most Americans, most people in the government) just don’t know shit about the country, about the people, about the culture, about the Taliban.
The “2 options” being floated by President Obama are both inherently flawed. If we increase troops (by 40,000 or any other number), we become an occupier (or even more so) and thus inflame the Taliban (and Afghani) resistance. If we decrease troop levels and use more unmanned drone bombing attacks (as Vice President Biden is suggesting), we will inevitably kill more innocent civilians, which is the one of the main reasons most Afghanis join the Taliban or other resistance movements (another major reason is that it’s the only way to make a living).
According to the film, it costs $800,000 a year for a single soldier to be deployed in Afghanistan.
It’s inevitable that we’re going to lose, our only chance to save what little face we can is to remove ourselves immediately, and to do that the President needs to at least acknowledge that as an option.
