Why is it that Republican foreign policy insists on remaining a caricature of itself? This weekend, forces working for Afghan warlord Bacha Khan launched several rocket attacks on Gardez, killing 50 civilians. Bacha Khan is also the guy who called in the US airstrike on the tribal elders heading to Kabul for the inauguration of the interim government that turned into a huge black eye for the US. And, more importantly, his troops took part in Operation Anaconda and received US weapons and training.
In the mean time, Donald Rumsfeld gave speeches to the troops this weekend, telling them:
You stand against an evil — an evil of mass murderers. It’s an evil that can’t be appeased, it can’t be ignored and it certainly cannot be allowed to prevail.
In other words, we stand with some mass murderers against other mass murderers. In the meantime, Rumsfeld refuses to expand the international peacekeeping force to areas outside Kabul. Instead, he says we’ll help Afghanistan build a national army. Never mind that creating an army strong enough to maintain peace in a country where everyone feels entitled to an assault rifle of their own will doubtlessly take years. Our troops are still in Afghanistan and we’re already leaving the Afghans out on a limb. I shudder to think of what the landscape there will look like in a year or so. I really hope the Bush administration proves me wrong.
Why is it that Republican foreign policy insists on remaining a caricature of itself? This weekend, forces working for Afghan warlord Bacha Khan launched several rocket attacks on Gardez, killing 50 civilians. Bacha Khan is also the guy who called in the US airstrike on the tribal elders heading to Kabul for the inauguration of the interim government that turned into a huge black eye for the US. And, more importantly, his troops took part in Operation Anaconda and received US weapons and training.
In the mean time, Donald Rumsfeld gave speeches to the troops this weekend, telling them:
In other words, we stand with some mass murderers against other mass murderers. In the meantime, Rumsfeld refuses to expand the international peacekeeping force to areas outside Kabul. Instead, he says we’ll help Afghanistan build a national army. Never mind that creating an army strong enough to maintain peace in a country where everyone feels entitled to an assault rifle of their own will doubtlessly take years. Our troops are still in Afghanistan and we’re already leaving the Afghans out on a limb. I shudder to think of what the landscape there will look like in a year or so. I really hope the Bush administration proves me wrong.
Commentary
Previous post
Next post