America’s longest war and now America’s most unpopular war. This war we’ve been fighting now in its 13th year that has become more unpopular than the Iraq War and the Vietnam War.
I listened to Cokie Roberts last Sunday saying we have a moral obligation to stay in Afghanistan, we owe the women and children educations, we must stay to allow them to go to school, to vote. Perhaps if you are born to wealth and privilege like her, that is an easy view to take. Or if your heart hurts that life is harsh not only for the women and children, but for all the poor in Afghanistan and that despite the billions of aid sent to that country, the lives of those stuck in poverty have not improved and America must do more.
However, in the US, not that terribly long ago, children were not in school, they were working the mines, working the farms, school was not a guaranteed right back then. It took years and much violence for unions to have power, for labor laws, for the right to an education to become law. Women could not vote, it took many years of activism before we gained that right, the right to be equal citizens, just like men, with the 19th amendment to our constitution.
Do we owe them, at the cost of our troop’s lives or maiming and billions upon billions of dollars more, that which we fought so hard for in our own country?
There is little support to continuing this war. Far too many in this economy are still suffering, jobs are hard to come by, social safety programs are on the chopping block, life is pretty harsh here for far too many. The MIC seems so out of control, as troops are sent here and there, as America interferes around the globe. We have 28,000 troops still in South Korea and more troops, along with tanks, were sent there just last week, (a war that ended well over 50 years ago). An example of once the US goes in, we do not easily ever leave. Missiles and drones just sent to Iraq. Aid to Israel, Syria, Egypt, etc., the list goes on and on.
How much more of this can the US, a country that cannot even take care of its poor, disabled and elderly adequately, afford to spend to continue to police the globe with our troops and military bases around the world?
Looking back……..
I was watching a program - “Vietnam Touched Off a Firestorm” part of a series called, Making Sense of the Sixties.
In 1964 America was optimistic about its future, The Great Society – but in a few short years, the Vietnam war, that faraway war, would touch off a rebellion in America, young activists concerned about civil rights, free speech, who began to believe that America cared more about freedom in Southeast Asia than freedom here at home. Young Americans were challenging the views of democracy, of patriotism. Young men who were not old enough to vote were being drafted to fight in Vietnam.
http://www.youtube.com/...
Today we have no anti-war movement in this country. We have an all volunteer army and private contractors. We have somewhere around 60,000 troops still in Afghanistan (according to NATO report in December 2013) and somewhere around 100,000 private contractors.
President Obama when campaigning for a second term, stated that his plan for ending the war in Afghanistan was to bring “all of our troops” home in 2014. However military brass say they have no plan for a complete withdrawal as the White House has not requested one. And of course we all know now that the CIC is attempting to come to an agreement with Karzai to allow troops to stay, not only to continue to train Afghans, but to fight terrorists. So words and actions that just never came together unfortunately.
That once considered "good war" by our President, who was given much leeway in expanding the war and sending more troops in, from around 33,000 US troops when he took office to a little over 100,000.
We really need an Anti-War movement in this country now, not just to end the Afghanistan War but to fight all the warhawks in congress - those in DC all too eager to engage the country in more wars. And we need it now!