By Mr. Curmudgeon
With President Obama’s timetable for withdrawal from Afghanistan as likely to succeed as his timetable for closing Gitmo, the left is pulling out all the stops and giving the community organizer a little taste of George W. Bush’s medicine. Someone leaked six-years worth of classified military documents to that disseminator of America’s top secrets — the New York Times.
This put White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs in the uncomfortable position of having to sound like Dick Cheney. “We are in this region of the world because of what happened on 9/11,” Gibbs reminded a forgetful White House press corps. “Ensuring that there is not a safe haven in Afghanistan by which attacks against this country and countries around the world can be planned. That’s why we’re there, and that’s why we’re going to continue to make progress on this relationship.”
The documents were released through Wikileaks, a Website that dubs itself “a multi-jurisdictional public service designed to protect whistleblowers, journalists and activists who have sensitive materials to communicate to the public.” Its founder, Julian Assange, told Germany’s Der Spiegel, “I enjoy crushing bastards.”
The administration states that there is no there there; that the information says what most have known for a while – that US military policy has been a little short in the war-making department. The documents also verify that the intelligence service of our fine ally Pakistan is aiding the Taliban. This, of course, should not surprise us since Pakistan was one of only three countries to recognize the Taliban and supply the scruffy misfits with arms.
The most striking revelation in the documents is how America’s Vietnamization program for Afghanistan (a winning-the-hearts-and-minds strategy coupled with Afghan army training intended to eventually relieve our military duties there) is turning out to be something of a fizzle.
The Second World War should have taught us that nation building only works after braking your enemies will and ability to wage war. It took two atomic bombs to break the will of Japan’s fanatical Imperial Army and its desire to die for the honor of its emperor-god.
Today’s America would never go as far to stop an enemy as ferociously fanatical. Instead, we merrily march down the well-trod road to Vietnam.
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