[R-G] Denial and Evasion on Afghanistan

[Anthony Fenton]

http://counterpunch.org/solomon03242009.html

March 24, 2009
14 Who Told Obama to Reconsider Escalating the War
Denial and Evasion on Afghanistan

By NORMAN SOLOMON

Is your representative speaking out against escalation of the  
Afghanistan war?

Last week, some members of Congress sent President Obama a letter that  
urged him to “reconsider” his order deploying 17,000 additional U.S.  
troops to Afghanistan.

Everyone in the House of Representatives had ample opportunity to sign  
onto the letter. Beginning in late February, it circulated on Capitol  
Hill for more than two weeks. The letter was the most organized  
congressional move so far to challenge escalation of the war in  
Afghanistan.

But the list of signers was awfully short.

     * California: Bob Filner, Michael Honda
     * Hawaii: Neil Abercrombie
     * Kentucky: Ed Whitfield
     * Maryland: Roscoe Bartlett
     * Massachusetts: Jim McGovern
     * Michigan: John Conyers
     * North Carolina: Howard Coble, Walter Jones
     * Ohio: Marcy Kaptur, Dennis Kucinich
     * Tennessee: John Duncan
     * Texas: Ron Paul
     * Wisconsin: Steve Kagen

We desperately need a substantive national debate on U.S. military  
intervention in Afghanistan and Pakistan. While the Obama  
administration says that the problems of the region cannot be solved  
by military means, the basic approach is reliance on heightened  
military means.

One of several journalists in Afghanistan on a tour “organized by the  
staff of commanding Gen. David D. McKiernan,” the Washington Post’s  
Jackson Diehl, wrote a March 23 op-ed in support of an invigorated  
“counterinsurgency strategy.” With journalistic resolve, he explained:  
“Everyone expects a surge of violence and American casualties this  
year; no one expects a decisive improvement in the situation for at  
least several years beyond that.”

The commanding general, Diehl added, does not anticipate that the  
Afghan army “can defend the country on its own” until 2016. In effect,  
the message is to stay the course for another seven years: “The  
thousands of American soldiers and civilians pouring into the country  
deserve that strategic patience; without it, the sacrifices we will  
soon hear of will be wasted.”

And so, with chillingly familiar echoes, goes the perverse logic of  
escalating the war in Afghanistan. “Strategic patience” -- more and  
more war -- will be necessary so that those who must die will not have  
died in vain.

In contrast, the letter from the 14 members of the House (eight  
Democrats, six Republicans) lays down a clear line of opposition to  
the rationales for stepping up the warfare.

“If the intent is to leave behind a stable Afghanistan capable of  
governing itself, this military escalation may well be  
counterproductive,” the letter says. And it warns that “any perceived  
military success in Afghanistan might create pressure to increase  
military activity in Pakistan. This could very well lead to dangerous  
destabilization in the region and would increase hostility toward the  
United States.”

More than 400 members of the House declined to sign the letter. In  
effect, they failed to join in a historic challenge to a prevailing  
assumption -- that the U.S. government must use massive violence for  
many more years to try to work Washington’s will on Afghanistan.

An old red-white-and-blue bumper sticker says: “These colors don’t run.”

A newer one says: “These colors don’t run... the world.”

Now, it’s time for another twist: “These colors won’t run...  
Afghanistan.”

But denial and evasion are in the political air.

Norman Solomon is the author of Made Love, Got War.