Sunday, January 4, 2015

WHAT DO YOU MEAN: OUR LONGEST WAR IS OVER???

There were many news reports last  week, as the US handed over more control of the war in Afghanistan that “our longest war” was over.

NOT true—at least not in my perspective.

First, Ten thousand or more troops remain..and if there’s a “surge” by the Taliban, or if ISIS moves into that country, stand by for many calls for more “boots on the ground” again. ..as we will hear if ISIS forces in Syria and Iraq seem to be winning.

We should never have been in Afghanistan. The Bush administration, frankly, deceived the American people..as it did with the WMD approach in Iraq.  Only here it was that “the Taliban is in league with Al-Qaida” and is, therefore, partially responsible for the events of 9/11. Not true.  In religious doctrine, both extremist groups did not agree. The Taliban had nothing to do with 9/11.  But in the haste…and rush to war in Iraq, the US went along. We have yet to extricate ourselves from Afghanistan..and as the poppy fields bloom again there..we  may yet have a War on Heroin if nothing else.

But, secondly,  what about the Korean “War”? The US started fighting there in 1950…65 years ago, SIX times the length of the Afghan war,  and there is still NO peace treaty between us. We maintain military forces there, and occasionally shooting breaks out, and an American GI is killed. That’s war to me..even though Congress NEVER declared war, and as a fact, has not since the end of World War Two! While Congressmen swear an oath to uphold the Constitution, maybe they haven’t read the section on the power to declare war recently.

Wars are tricky things..but if we are ever to understand them, and deal with them properly, the facts must be out there. Declaring any end to our “longest war” is no way to help America do that.

I'm just sayin'...

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