OBAMA SHOULD DROP PLANS TO ESCALATE AFGHAN WAR; SEND IN PEACE CORPS INSTEAD

By Sherwood Ross

President-elect Obama should drop his plans to escalate the war in Afghanistan, a country that never attacked America, out of pity for a helpless civilian population that will only suffer increasing misery from an expanded fight against the Taliban and its allies.

Recall military intervention was used to capture Panamanian military dictator Manuel Noriega for a drug charge in December 20, 1989. That illegal assault, ordered by President George H.W. Bush, killed 500 Panamanian civilians, wounded 3,000 more, and pushed 15,000 people out of their homes, an incredible price innocent people were made to pay to enable the U.S. to nail one drug-runner.

In Afghanistan, the civilian population has already paid a much higher price. “The basic ingredients of further Afghan disasters are in place,” warns Norman Solomon, executive director of the Washington-based Institute For Public Accuracy, “including, pivotally, a dire lack of wide-ranging debate over Washington’s options.”

"We will kill bin Laden. We will crush al Qaeda. That has to be our biggest national security priority," Senator Barack Obama pledged during the televised presidential debate of last October 7.

Yes, and in so doing, thousands of additional Afghan civilians are liable to perish, likely far more of them then the 3,000 Americans massacred on 9/11 in New York and Washington.

more . . . http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/node/38256

decisive move towards peace and prosperity. We can do it!

They would be sitting ducks for kidnapping and other violence.

At least, if I was an unarmed noncombatant white Anglo Saxon American in the Peace Corp, I would take a dim view.

The Taliban (who now control over 50% of the country, maybe as much as 75%) just don't seem like a very tolerant crowd. Even if all I am there to do is get running water for some village.

But yeah, the "more troops" idea that might have seemed like a good idea maybe 7 years ago... not so much now.

If so, she would be the first one to be massacred by the Taliban as would any westerner or non Muslim. My guess is he would stay at home blogging on the computer rather than volunteering which says alot about the proposal.

Whoops, posting under my wife's account.

Dumbest idea ever.

First of all, the terrain is menacing. Secondly, there would be LOTS of beheaded Peace Corps kids on the side of the road.

Got utopia?

"we have a Department of Peace."

And, it's crap like that, that makes liberals look stupid.

because I enthusiastically support the idea of a Dept of Peace and I think our Dept of Defense is in need of some serious cleaning up.

Brilliant!

Such an optimist. No wonder you're a Democrat.

Sending in the peace corps would be a disaster. In addition, the Afghan government, the Taliban, refused to kick out Al Quaeda which did attack us.

Senators Kerry, Biden and Feingold have all had proposals that spoke of the need to rebuild Afghanistan - but they all called for doing it in conjunction with the military.

Senator Kerry was in Afghanistan, representing himself as the incoming Chair of SFRC and informally as an emissary from Obama, here is what he had to say:
""If you add troops and have the strategy we've had, that won't get the job done," Kerry said after having breakfast early Thursday with U.S. forces. "But if you use the troops to give you the ability to do the real work more at the local level, the provincial level, making a difference in people's lives, then you have a chance to win over hearts and minds as well."

The senator said it's equally important for the United States to help stand up the Afghani police force as it is the nation's military force.

"They're going to have to recruit like crazy and train like crazy, but that's doable," Kerry said.

The senator said the Taliban exerts control through brute force but the public would be willing to reject them if they felt safe in their daily lives."

http://www.startribune.com/politics/national/congress/36359254.html?elr=KArks8c7PaP3E77K_3c::D3aDhUec7PaP3E77K_0c::D3aDhUiacyKUU

"... we've got to really ramp up our development approach to Afghanistan. I mean, part of the problem that we've had is the average Afghan farmer hasn't seen any improvement in his life. You know, we haven't seen the kinds of infrastructure improvements, we haven't seen the security improvements, we haven't seen the reduction in narco trafficking, we haven't seen a reliance on rule of law in Afghanistan that would make people feel confident that the central government can, in fact, deliver on its promises. And if we combine effective development, more effective military work, as well as more effect diplomacy, then I think that we can stabilize the situation. Our number one goal has to be to make sure that it cannot be used as a base to launch attacks against the United States, and we've got to get bin Laden and we've got to get al-Qaeda."

Trust me, he gets it.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28097635/page/3/

I think sending in the Peace Corps would look something like dropping an alligator in a goldfish pond.

The Naive Pacifists are very quickly pissing me off.

where they would volunteer 150,000 peacekeepers for Iraq if the U.S. pulls out. They might do the same thing in Afghanistan. Why not take advantage of a can't-lose scenario.