[Peace-discuss] Principled opposition to US attacks

[C. G. Estabrook]

[From the libertarian website Antiwar.com. Principled opposition in the US is 
unfortunately  almost entirely confined to the old Right and the real Left - 
liberals, including almost all those from both the Republicans and the 
Democrats, are notable by their absence. --CGE]

[...]

In reading the New York Times‘ account of the great American armada as it 
descends on Helmand province, in Afghanistan, the latest "surge" of American 
military might through Central Asia, I am struck by the repetitiveness of the 
whole operation: it recalls all the large-scale military disasters of the past, 
from the Spanish Armada to Napoleon’s invasion of Russia, to the 
counterinsurgency strategy we tried in Vietnam, right up to the supposedly 
concluded invasion of Iraq, the alleged success of which the Obama 
administration is now bizarrely taking "credit" for. I hear the same 
grandiosity, expressed with the same eerie confidence: "We’ve got a government 
in a box, ready to roll in," avers Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the US commander in 
Afghanistan and the architect of the new counterinsurgency strategy, which is 
"clear, hold, and build."

[...]

Imagine if a foreign country invaded and conquered the United States. The 
occupation forces set up a "government" run by the American equivalent of Hamid 
Karzai – say, Rod Blagojevich. And the generals and politicians of the occupying 
country get together for a strategic powwow and decide that the best way to 
pacify those obstreperous Americans is to buy them off. "Just give them a 
regular paycheck," says one General, "and they’ll think twice about resisting."

[...]

This war is but the beginning of a series of wars, which started in Iraq and are 
now proceeding across the face of Central Asia, heading for Pakistan – and Iran. 
The War Party isn’t through with us quite yet – not by a long shot...

http://original.antiwar.com/justin/2010/02/14/an-antiwar-credo/

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