General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region Forumsthis trip to Afghanistan just reminds me of how fucked up
everything is.
It reminds me of how cynically politicians use people and situations and countries to maneuver for advantage over their political opponents.
It reminds me that Afghanistan is a horrible fuck up.
It reminds me that women in Afghanistan still live cruel, brutal lives.
It reminds me that our government is politely pretending that Karzai isn't hideously corrupt.
I'll be voting for the President in November, but I gotta say; I don't see this trip as that much different than shrub's plastic turkey trip to Iraq.
Both jaunts leave me nauseated.
onethatcares
(16,192 posts)this morning I was listening to an NPR broadcast where they were stating all the problems with our occupation and one of the main things was that Karzai has made no attempt to locate corruption in the variouss levels of government.
My first thought was, gauddammm, Karzai is the most corrupt figure in the government and we're just tossing money at him hand over fist. This will never stop until we are out of there and even then the corporations that
are taking whatever oil proceeds will continue to pay funds.
To double check me look at VietNam and the corruption there until we got the hell out and let the people take it over and yes, I realize they are called a communist country but they are a communist country with favored trading status.
dixiegrrrrl
(60,010 posts)just as has been done with all the other puppet masters the US has put into power.
Saddam
Gadaffi
The Shah of Iran
Mubarak
etc
etc
etc
Vanje
(9,766 posts)zeemike
(18,998 posts)"We have have met the enemy and he is us"
don't blame Obama...it's our fault that we allowed this ever to get started
Slowly over the years we have been conditioned to accept such things as "support the troops" and "thank them for their service" as well as other things like that intended to make it into a requirement that you cheer on the team no mater what for fear of being called out by others.
And Bush codified it in his eight years to where our politicians must do it or else they will be destroyed.
They have made us stupid and now we must play the game
Skidmore
(37,364 posts)viewing cultural dynamics in the ME from within and without, I've come to the conclusion that this nation needs to remove itself from serving as the metric by which all other nations are measured. First, we are no better culturally than any other nation on earth and do have more than our share of corruption, brutality, and contemptuous treatment of the poor and the abused. We traffic in human misery with the best of them. Second, as a nation, we need to face the very real fact that what goes on elsewhere is not necessarily our business. That peoples elsewhere have the same right we have to be fuck-ups too. When we point a judgmental finger to others, we can certainly find hundreds pointing back.
We need to get out of Afghanistan. Period. And doing that may necessitate that we leave in place a corrupt and vicious government for the people there to do with what they will. We've had too much of a self-image of parent to the world for too long.
onethatcares
(16,192 posts)we've been trotting around the world for too long trying to bring stability to countries that don't want an American or western democracy stuffed down their throats.
The bad thing is, the corporations have honed their craft to promote our invasions with those that don't actually care about what we're doing. (did that make sense?)