[Peace-discuss] Why are we in Afghanistan?

[C. G. Estabrook]

[In the wake of Obama's announcement today (viz., that he is sending a 
pinch-assassin into AfPak), I sent the following letter to the editor of our 
local daily. --CGE]


To the editor of the News-Gazette:

Why are we in Afghanistan?  Why are American soldiers killing men, women, and 
children half-way around the world - and dying and being maimed in the process?

Obama is conducting an even more brutal war than Bush did, but he explains why 
only with Bushisms: "I want the American people to understand that we have a 
clear and focused goal - to disrupt, dismantle and defeat al-Qaeda in Pakistan 
and Afghanistan, and to prevent their return to either country in the future. 
That’s the goal that must be achieved.”

Obama is lying, for two reasons:

[1] he must say that he is fighting terrorism because the only constitutional 
authority he has to conduct foreign war is the "Authorization for the Use of 
Military Force" against terrorists, passed by Congress immediately after 9/11; and

[2] he cannot admit the real reason for this seemingly senseless war: the 
control of Mideast energy resources. From Palestine to Pakistan and from Central 
Asia to the Horn of Africa, within a 1500-mile radius of the Persian Gulf lie 
most of the world's gas and oil.  For generations the US has insisted on 
controlling it, not for our own use (we import very little oil from the Mideast) 
but because of the advantage it gives us over our economic rivals in Europe and 
Asia.

The US needs war.  If peace should break out, the US would have no excuse for 
its military control of the largest oil-producing region of the world.

Sincerely,
C. G. Estabrook

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