Notes of Concern…..
……Jackson Blair
AFGHAN HOUNDS?
I yearn for a time when the mention of the word “Afghan” brought to mind the beautiful, cozy and warm blanket we kept over the sofa, or on other occasions the visual of a beautiful dog with silky hair running through a field.
The American Kennel Club describes the Afghan hound this way:
“The Afghan Hound is an aristocrat, his whole appearance one of dignity and aloofness with no trace of plainness or coarseness.”
Whoever named this beautiful dog must have been smoking some of those poppies the Afghans are shipping out of their country every day.
It would be a similar story with the warm, cozy and comfortable blanket on the back of the sofa. Show me a description of the Afghan warlords that uses the words: warm, cozy and comfortable. Then again I suppose Osama bin Laden is warm, cozy and comfortable in his undisclosed location. And in all these years we haven’t found it.
Today when I hear “Afghan” I think of Afghanistan and it is a very frightening thought. Afghanistan seems to have been involved in some sort of tribal warfare for as long as anyone can remember. As a person who studies history, I am well aware of the fate of outsiders who have attempted to involve themselves in these tribal wars.
When our nation descended on Afghanistan we were told it was for a couple of reasons. As I recall, we were there to help the “good guys” (although it was tough to identify anyone who fit that label!), to punish the “bad guys” (evidently anyone in, or sympathetic to, Al Qaida), and to catch the “Mr. BIG” of terrorism, Osama bin Laden.
With reference to helping the “good guys” we haven’t been too successful. These folks love to fight with one another and the only thing that somewhat unites them as a nation is the interference of outsiders. Please note that WE are the “outsiders”.
With reference to punishing the “bad guys” we get another failing grade. They are still very much in evidence in that country and their pastime is killing American soldiers and blowing up innocents who get in their way.
With reference to catching “Mr. BIG” I can only say that we haven’t even come close. And to make matters worse, he keeps sending us messages on film!
The General in charge of EVERYTHING has asked for more troops in order to get his job done.
The President in charge of the General has convened his advisors in the Situation Room of The White House for what seems to be hundreds of meetings over a very long time. The folks meeting in the posh White House have failed to deliver anything to the troops on the ground, as the General in charge of EVERYTHING, who represents them, has noticed.
With each meeting at The White House, with each passing day, more young men and women shed their blood in Afghanistan.
I hesitate to bring this up, but this situation is reminiscent of a burning Rome while Caesar is reputed to have been “fiddling”.
I admit that I no longer think The United States of America has any business being in Afghanistan and we should be unwilling to sacrifice one more American life to try to bring order to those internal tribal battles.
We do not need to maintain an army on the ground in Afghanistan to look for Mr. BIG. Turn that over to the CIA and other world intelligence organizations (like the Israelis’ MOSSAD) that have even more interest in finding him. And I expect they would, it would be quick, and we would never know what happened to him. If you ever followed how they got the terrorists who murdered the Israel Olympic athletes you know what I mean.
No one in America cares which tribe wins in Afghanistan, and I seriously doubt any of us will be living if and when that decision is finally made. Actually, I don’t think it will be resolved. There is no impetus to resolve it. It is their way of life. One might ask how in the world we got dragged into that family feud, or at least why we are still standing between the Afghan version of The Hatfields and The McCoys.
There are not really any “white hats” for us to support in Afghanistan. There are good people in Afghanistan and I in no way want to detract from their goodness, but my friends, they are not running the government and are unlikely to be running it any time soon.
The people who grow the poppies, or protect the growers of the poppies, or who are involved in the drug trade, those are the people who really call the shots in Afghanistan. And these people are very happy for us to keep their enemies busy while they continue to grow their magnificently profitable crops.
I wish I could suggest to the President of our country that it is time to bring the troops home from Afghanistan. I think I will shoot a hard copy of this column to him. He won’t see it but some “gofer” will and he will add me to the column of “letters from those opposed” that he keeps, and he will tell Obama one day what those numbers look like. Of course, all the folks in the White House might still be meeting and trying to figure out what to do. Certainly, the General should be retired by then.
If I have failed to convince you that Afghanistan is one very big, dark hole down which we are pouring our money and our young people, please ask our new Russian friends to brief you on their former, lamentable experience with these same thugs.
