“Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it”
George Santayana, Spanish Philosopher (1863-1952)
On Friday, 5 June,2010, Bill Moyers sat down with award-winning investigative journalist Jeremy Scahill to examine the human and financial costs of America’s wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. His was the most compelling case I’ve seen for why we must drastically change course in that part of the world. Here is an excerpted version of his videocast.
References
The Taliban
Alexandar & Afghanistan
The British & Afghanistan
The Russians & Afghanistan
LBJ & Vietnam
Comments
From Ellis Katz, elliskatz@sbcglobal.net.
To: Mr. Obama: you have inherited a hornet’s nest in Afghanistan/Pakistan, but you are kicking that nest with the addition of more “boots on the ground”. Putting it in the simplest possible terms: The “west” is not welcome in that part of the world (although its dollars are). So what must you do? First, use and enhance all means of intelligence gathering to anticipate and negate any threats to us…or our allies. To be effective, we must insert agents who look like, talk like and act like the people of the region (especially the Taliban). Second, insert agents on the ground (not remote drones) to “neutralize” perceived threats. Third (and concurrent with 1 and 2), begin drawing down our visible presence in those parts. Fourth: Do not rely on the governments of those parts to participate in the above actions.
From Ellis Katz, elliskatz@sbcglobal.net. 7 July 09
Could there be a more portentous confluence of articles appearing on the front page of the Los Angeles Times, July 7, 2009 ?
“In Afghan war, a fatal harbinger”
“Architect of Vietnam War later revealed his regrets”