[Peace-discuss] Our Corrupt Occupation of Afghanistan

[John W.]

On Sat, Nov 14, 2009 at 9:14 AM, Jenifer Cartwright <jencart13 at yahoo.com>wrote:

My simplistic view of the situation is that those complaining about
> corruption are looking for a way to end the ground war -- which is going
> nowhere and has become unpopular -- and escalate the drone attacks, which
> are below (above?) the radar, i e the aware-ness (or give-a-care-ness) of
> the voters.
> My 2c... but y're probably right -- things are never as simple as I think
> they are.
>  --Jenifer
>

There may be some other things going on, Jen, but I think your analysis is
absolutely correct as far as it goes.  War in general has become much more
sanitized for US here in the U.S.  As long as we don't have large numbers of
our own sons and daughters coming home in body bags, we Americans
collectively don't give a tinker's damn how many Pakistanis we kill.
Arguments that are purely moral in nature never, never, never, never have
any impact on either our politicians or on the average American.  Hell, we
can't even bring ourselves to think pragmatically if it's any sort of
long-range pragmatism.

John




> --- On *Fri, 11/13/09, Robert Naiman <naiman.uiuc at gmail.com>* wrote:
>
>
> From: Robert Naiman <naiman.uiuc at gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: [Peace-discuss] Our Corrupt Occupation of Afghanistan
> To: "Jenifer Cartwright" <jencart13 at yahoo.com>
> Cc: "Peace-discuss List" <peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net>
> Date: Friday, November 13, 2009, 10:17 PM
>
> If I were sure that would be true - that the US and Britain were going
> to use "corruption" as the excuse for getting out - I would be
> delighted. But the balance of evidence so far suggests that it will
> not be true, that chest-thumping about corruption will be used as a
> release valve and a channel-changer to deflect pressure for
> withdrawal. The governments that are screaming the loudest about
> corruption - the US and Britain - are the ones pushing the most for
> more troops. That makes me very skeptical.
>
> On Fri, Nov 13, 2009 at 9:55 PM, Jenifer Cartwright <jencart13 at yahoo.com<http://us.mc449.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=jencart13@yahoo.com>>
> wrote:
> >
> > I think these guys are thrilled to have found an excuse to get out of
> fighting and funding an unpopular war, now that the polls are showing that
> the majority of voters oppose it. The real goal of every politician is to
> get reelected, and the corruption thing makes a great cover story/face
> saver. Could be wishful thinking on my part, of course...
> >  --Jenifer
> >
> > --- On Fri, 11/13/09, Robert Naiman <naiman.uiuc at gmail.com<http://us.mc449.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=naiman.uiuc@gmail.com>>
> wrote:
> >
> > From: Robert Naiman <naiman.uiuc at gmail.com<http://us.mc449.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=naiman.uiuc@gmail.com>
> >
> > Subject: [Peace-discuss] Our Corrupt Occupation of Afghanistan
> > To: "Peace-discuss List" <peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net<http://us.mc449.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=peace-discuss@lists.chambana.net>
> >
> > Date: Friday, November 13, 2009, 11:24 AM
> >
> > Is it just me, or is the pontification of Western leaders about
> > corruption in Afghanistan growing rather tiresome?
> >
> > There is something very Captain Renault about it. We're shocked,
> > shocked that the Afghans have sullied our morally immaculate
> > occupation of their country with their dirty corruption. How
> > ungrateful can they be?
> >
> > But perhaps we should consider the possibility that our occupation of
> > the country is not so morally immaculate - indeed, that the most
> > corrupt racket going in Afghanistan today is the American occupation.
> >
> >
> http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-naiman/our-corrupt-occupation-of_b_356647.html
> >
> > --
> > Robert Naiman
> > Just Foreign Policy
> > www.justforeignpolicy.org
> > naiman at justforeignpolicy.org<http://us.mc449.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=naiman@justforeignpolicy.org>
>
>
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