Disconnect

Is when the leader of the Free World, and the latest Nobel Peace Prize winner is planning on sending another 30,000 innocent men and women to slaughter untold thousands of other innocent men and women in an unwinnable invasion of a sovereign country, Afghanistan.

Is when said Nobel Peace Prize winner refuses to ban land mines and thus becomes the only nation in the world in that exalted position (reminder – these mines killed and maimed over 5,000 innocent men, women and children last year).

Is when Goldman Sachs, with tax payer bailout money, has set aside 16.7 billion dollars for executive bonuses and only pays 1% in corporate taxes.

Is when nearly a million American homeowners have their homes foreclosed on in the the 3rd quarter of 2009.

Is when 10 US states are on the verge of bankruptcy: California, Arizona, Florida, Illinois, Michigan, Nevada, New Jersey, Oregon, Rhode Island.

Is when federal budget deficit is now over 12 trillion dollars.

Is when 47.4 million US citizens live in poverty and 3 million citizens, and climbing, are homeless.

Is when 50% of US children need food stamps to eat. To eat!

Is when, in 2008, 46.3 million US citizens were without health care. It is much worse today. There are 45,000 preventable deaths from lack of health care every year and of these 17,000 are children. Children. Not to mention uncountable health care bankruptcies. All meaningful amendments to Health Care Reform, of course, have been stripped by the lobby driven Senate, and this weak diluted bill will only come into effect in 2013 anyway, post-apocalypse.

Is when demand for guns and ammunition in the states has reached an all time high and the 200 companies in this business can’t keep up with the demand for bullets.

Seven Years in Afghanistan=Bin Laden Still at Large+Tougher Al Qaeda

A country in economic freefall with wars invasions on one too many fronts is doomed for failure.

I can think of no instance in history where a nation has triumphed given all these strikes against it. We only need look at the Roman and British Empires for starters.

The military presence in Iraq, apart from the millions of 'collaterally damaged' innocent Iraqi civilians murdered and displaced has resulted in an incomprehensible number of injured, depressed and suicidal U.S. military veterans, many of whom roam the U.S. streets on their return. it will only be a matter of time before some go on a murderous rampage in the absence of funds to deal with their PTSDs.

Bob Herbert, whom I've long admired, in today's New York Times, writes of the two disastrous campaigns on these two beleagured countries. He says, in part, about Afghanistan:

We invaded Afghanistan more than seven years ago. We have not broken the back of Al Qaeda or the Taliban. We have not captured or killed Osama bin Laden. We don’t even have an escalation strategy, much less an exit strategy. An honest assessment of the situation, taking into account the woefully corrupt and ineffective Afghan government led by the hapless Hamid Karzai, would lead inexorably to such terms as fiasco and quagmire. Instead of cutting our losses, we appear to be doubling down.

Isn't it time someone, anyone, in the policical scene in Washington studied history?For was there never a more pressing time than now when we appear to be doomed to repeat it endlessly?

And maybe they'd, eureka!, discover that no invading army has ever, ever won in Afghanistan.