[Peace-discuss] Why Are We in Afghanistan?

[C. G. Estabrook]

	Published on Tuesday, May 19, 2009 by CommonDreams.org
	Why Are We in Afghanistan?
	by Tom Gallagher

Why are we in Afghanistan? That is, why are we still in Afghanistan, seven years 
on? There's no simple answer, but one factor could be that those who feel that 
the new folks in Washington care about what's on their minds are themselves not 
paying very close attention to what's going on there...

Since we can't be sure that the war in Afghanistan is not deterring terrorism, 
it's best not to oppose it...

Tom Gallagher is a San Francisco antiwar activist who initiated last November's 
successful Proposition U calling upon the city's congressional representatives 
to vote no further funding for the Iraq War.  He is a past member of the 
Massachusetts House of Representatives.  Contact him at TGTGTGTGTG at aol.com

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/05/19-3

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So why does such an experienced activist come up with such an inadequate answer 
to the question he poses?

There are actually two questions here:

--one about the motive for the USG's vastly expensive invasion and occupation of 
Afghanistan (as one might ask, "Why did Germany invade Poland in 1939?" and 
expect to receive a geopolitical answer); and

--another about the absence of a popular movement against a war for which the 
Congress casually voted more than $90 billion this week.

Gallagher seems interested only in the latter. The situation is reminiscent of 
the early days of Vietnam, when even most of the "political class" had no idea 
where Vietnam was or why we were killing people there. It makes me think that 
the anti-war movement needs to get much more serious about political discussion 
-- and really discuss Gallagher's (first) question.  --CGE