Neglecting Afghanistan

When the Kansas City Star runs front-page articles that question the war effort and strategy, it should be a "Cronkite Moment" for the administration. Let's just say that neo-con protestations be damned, the Star is no bastion of liberalism. Michelle Malkin (shrieking harpie nutjob), Jonah Goldberg(wingnut), Kathleen Parker (aka Super Twit) and Charles Krauthhammer (no words strong enough to label this fuck-tard) all have a home on their editorial pages, and either Glenn McCoy or Michael Ramirez are the most prominent editorial cartoonists on the sindication payroll. The Star is no San Francisco Chronicle, my friends.

When the troops first hit the ground in Afghanistan, they met with seeming success. The Taliban was quickly routed.

Then aWol decided the really rockin' party wasn't in Afghanistan after all. It would be in Iraq. So resources and troops that were originally charged with securing Afghanistan (and tracking down bin Laden) were directed toward the burgeoning effort in Iraq. This left the door wide open for a Taliban comeback. And being the opportunists they are, they jumped on it.

Suicide bombings (there were two in all of 2002) now occur at a rate of one every five days. Civillian casualties are climbing steadily, and the climbing death tolls among civilians inspire Taliban sympathies. The report quotes a street vendor in Kabul as saying "The Americans made promises that they haven't carried out, like bringing security to the country and eradicating poverty. Karzai is an irresponsible person. he is just a figurehead."

The "experts" say it is not too late to turn the tide, but it will require a massive effort, requiring more troops, attention, and focused effort. And America doesn't have the troops to send, even though that need for troops predicates the attention and the focused effort.

It's a mess people. A mess that the powers that be would have prefered to sweep under the carpet until November 8th. Thankfully they are failing in their quest to keep us blissfully ignorant and dwelling in the realm of denial, sitting on our fat asses stuffing empty calories into our faces and watching Wife Swap.

We have five weeks and six days to not just hold our territory, but to advance. I am feeling more energized an optimistic with every piece of news out of Washington that shines a light on BushCrimCo malfeasance and incompetence. The deluge has started. May it sweep away the last six years of craven incompetence, slavish fear-mongering and failed policies. May we awaken six weeks from today with hope taking root in the hearts and minds of Americans and Publicans packing up to leave Washington come January.