or "What? There's a War there too?" War Deaths Ratchet Up as Barack Obama and the Neocons Continue to Ignore Geopolitical and Cultural Realities

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by Jake, the Champion of the Constitution
Sunday, July 20, 2008.  Originally posted at http://www.nolanchart.com/article4291.html

Dr. Ron Paul (when permitted to speak) at the ‘07 Republican Presidential Debate on our logic in attacking Iraq instead of Bin Laden following 9/11

"Let me see if I get this right – we need to borrow $10 Billion from China, and then we give it to Musharraf, who is a Military Dictator, who Overthrew an Elected Government, then We Go to War, Losing all these Lives, Promoting Democracy?"

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This article is dedicated to:

1st Lieutenant. Jonathan P. Brostrom, 24, of Hawaii

Sergeant Israel Garcia, 24, of Long Beach, California

Corporal Jonathan R. Ayers, 24, of Snellville, Georgia

Corporal Jason M. Bogar, 25, of Seattle, Washington

Corporal Jason D. Hovater, 24, of Clinton, Tennessee

Corporal Matthew B. Phillips, 27, of Jasper, Georgia

Corporal Pruitt A. Rainey, 22, of Haw River, North Carolina

Corporal Gunnar W. Zwilling, 20, of Florissant, Missouri

Private First Class Sergio S. Abad, 21, of Morganfield, Kentucky

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These are the names of the nine (9) combat dead in a skirmish on July 13, 2008, on the Afghani-Pakistani border. Their outpost in the city of Wanat was overwhelmed by Pakistani tribal freedom fighters, and American forces retreated under heavy fire. To these dead young Americans and the other 4,673 American warrior dead in Afghanistan and Iraq, sorry guys, I will never give up, but not enough of us are protesting, contacting our Congress, and basically making a nuisance of ourselves about the Senselessness of your Deaths. The cost of gas, the financial markets and whether the Next President can Save Us from Terrorists and Fix the Economy, gay marriage, health care even! are still too important. As in Iraq, as in Vietnam, the thesis is Obama and America simply does not understand regional cultural and political truths, and that you cannot invade a country, oppress, torture, and kill its people, and expect them to be happy about it.

(Meanwhile, back at the ranch, the Democrats are endorsing war sanctions on Iran – air, sea, land blockade - for Israel and "Our Oil", claiming "Weapons of Mass Destruction" – nay, not even this really, but the "Possible Future Potential to Make Weapons of Mass Destruction.")

SecDef Gates and Admiral Mullen stated they will Surge some of the 150,000 troops previously Surged to Iraq "sooner rather than later" to Afghanistan, while stating Pakistan must do a better job of protecting its borders. America from Jan-June 2008 has dropped 1,853 bombs on Afghanistan - on pace to break the total number of bombs dropped in all of 2006-2007. This Air Force Times article speculates that "as high as those numbers are, they may understate the intensity of the combat."

Obama, politically trying to preempt McCain, on his mock presidential foreign policy tour of Afghanistan yesterday stated he supports surging an additional 7,000 troops to the area. In the same article it states that military analysts disagree sending more troops is the answer. Why do we seem so anxious to repeat Soviet history? Let us not forget that the Soviet Afghanistan war expenditures helped accelerate the bankruptcy and breakdown of the Soviet Union's empire, why not the same fate for our own empire? However politically astute Obama’s moves are - for he is right, the Afghanistan war curries much more favor and far less popular resistance than that other silly, minor war we have in Iraq - let us not be blinded that Obama’s Ideology of using Military Might is no less different than those of the Neocon's.

Obama and the Bush Administration are ignoring several truths.

First, that United States itself cannot even adequately patrol its Mexico or Canadian borders. It is estimated hundreds of thousands cross the Mexican border undetected every year. What right do we have to demand this of Pakistan? And if you know a little geography, the Pakistani border is all extremely mountainous terrain where armies of thousands can disappear without a trace – as the mujahedins, including Bin Laden, did in the 1980s under US sponsorship to fight the Soviets. Indeed, if you take a closer look at the DoD obituary again, I find it sadly ironic that the 9 dead soldiers’ unit was based in the Vicenza, Italy, and died patrolling another foreign border, far from the American heartland. I mean I know the Italians need our help still, but my Grandfathers ended WWII almost 70 years ago!

Let me see if I get this right - we leave our borders undefended, post our armies abroad and then complain that other countries need to control their borders – we are a bunch of whiners if you ask me, if our government apparatus in Washington wants to police the world, FINE! Go ahead and try to Police all International Borders in the Middle East and Europe while neglecting America’s! I hope you go bankrupt! (Wait a sec, I pay for this…) Anyways - bottom line - we have been there for seven (7) years and have not succeeded in evicting al-Qaeda – we have only strengthened them, and it is foolish to believe we are only fighting them – the Taliban, the many other tribal groups, any and all dissenters of the current Afghanistan government we installed, all the children that have grown up in a war zone only to know that the American Way is one of oppression, torture, and murder of civilians – certainly not the original goals of removing al-Qaeda nor the new goals of 'spreading democracy' and 'nation-building.'

Second, Pakistan government is in chaos. They need to deal with surging inflation, food, water, electricity shortages in the cities and political infighting and they do NOT have the time to worry about the tribal regions. And why would they? Don’t you think that attacking the militant areas (picture Louisiana) would not look to the Pakistanis as if the government was murdering its own citizens? The Pakistani army refuses to be the US’s patsy again and invade the tribal regions and rightfully so – they would get bloodied like the first time they attacked at our behest. The sad truth here is that while we whine about Iran possibly getting nukes in the future, our actions are destabilizing Pakistan, a nuclear power right next to its arch-enemy, India. (2-minute all-you-need-to-know summary of India-Pakistan war, funny but true) Keep in mind that this government has kept millions of Afghanis as refugees over the last three decades, which I believe is more people for more time than any other nation in history! The current UN count is 1.3 million. You can bet some of them will fight tooth and nail against the current tribal Karzid Afghanistan government if they are forced to return, but at the same time acknowledge that Pakistan has done the world and these refugees a favor by supporting them for so long.

The third truth is we are going to lose this "War on Terror." Here’s another view on the geopolitical position.

"The US is in a bind. It has to deny the Pahktun insurgency (the Taliban are only one part of it) the use of the tribal areas as a base. With Pakistan showing no will to control these areas, it is threatening to take unilateral military action there. This will obviously be through air strikes and Special Forces raids, both notorious for their inevitable "collateral damage." This will add fuel to the fire of militancy, pushing more recruits into the ranks of the jihad, especially the deadly suicide bombers. An insurgency cannot be defeated by a few successful decapitation strikes, or even by turning a rugged mountainous base area into a free-fire zone. The more perceptive US commanders probably know this, but they have to be seen to do something about the continuous guerrilla attacks. How long will the NATO allies stick around fighting an unwinnable war? How long will the US public put up with it?

But that is not the worst of it. Believing Pakistan to be complicit in the US strikes on their people, the tribal militants will turn on it; they have already seen the deadly effect of their suicide bombs in the teeming cities. An already fragile governmental and societal structure will face severe stress; anything could happen. One thing is certain - the religious fundamentalists in the country will take full advantage of this turmoil. For the US, the first impact will be on their supply line through Pakistan. Then, Pakistan itself, as an ally, will be at risk.

If the US mounts sustained attacks on the tribal areas, this will be regarded by all Pakistanis as an attack on their country. The upsurge of anti-US feeling will be such that neither the government nor the military could thereafter afford to show any sign of cooperation with the US. That will seriously compound US problems in Afghanistan and the region. Several commentators have mentioned the possibility of Pakistan unravelling. This is unlikely, but when things continue to spiral downwards, people tend to turn to saviours – and this is what religious fundamentalists claim to be, especially where corruption, lawlessness, and insecurity flourish."

I have a solution. Just leave. Come home. I don’t want any more American troops dying – for who? for what? So Mr. and Mrs. Mohammed can go vote? So the freedom-fighters can grow in strength and overturn governments? (For freedom-fighters is what the terrorists are after really, freedom from the USA’s Empire, same as me in a way, but really far more scared of the US, far more desperately violent than I.) Cui bono? Who is benefiting? We can start a peaceful transition for the world if we change to a foreign policy of non-interventionalism. We will not be overrun by terrorists, retreat is actually the best ploy to bring them into the open, where they can be divided and destroyed politically (and not just by us!) or, if We the People deem it necessary, Letters of Marque could be issued to bring individuals to justice. And in the long run, our freedoms (and if you follow the markets and economy, our prosperity) will return.

Here is what the other Voice of "Change", Senator "Barackcuda" Obama said in a long-winded, but, I am sure, touchingly eloquent and charismatic speech on national security.

"The greatest threat to that security lies in the tribal regions of Pakistan, where terrorists train and insurgents strike into Afghanistan. We cannot tolerate a terrorist sanctuary, and as President, I won’t. We need a stronger and sustained partnership between Afghanistan, Pakistan and NATO to secure the border, to take out terrorist camps, and to crack down on cross-border insurgents. We need more troops, more helicopters, more satellites, more Predator drones in the Afghan border region. And we must make it clear that if Pakistan cannot or will not act, we will take out high-level terrorist targets like bin Laden if we have them in our sights."

"Greatest" threat, eh? So if Pakistan’s democratically-elected government tells us (as they have) we cannot attack their sovereign soil (which they Pakis cannot allow, as explained above) we will attack anyways? This is called preemptive war against the Pakistani tribal peoples. I plead with you Reader, when attacked or suffer from "collateral damage" these tribal people will NOT give a damn about the Injustices of 9/11 or Spreading Democracy or American National Security, the deaths of their children will result in them attacking their oppressors, the Americans. WAKE UP AMERICA, this is no different from what Hitler did in 1939. Here is another like-minded take from the former UN Kashmir mission head on Obama's pronouncement. Two last comments - it is a known fact that Bush’s Predator drone attacks are infamous for causing high amounts of civilian deaths, what is callously dismissed as collateral damage. It is a known fact that on his nice, comprehensive, expensive website "Barackcuda" also lists increasing the size of the military by nearly 100,000 troops as a top priority. One has to ask, if the troops are coming home, why do we need more of them?

However, we are already attacking Pakistan. The CIA in 2006 bombed Pakistan killing several al-Qaeda although there was plenty of "collateral damage." The intended target survived. The reply from the Pakistani tribals? A suicide bombing in Afghanistan, killing 22 civilians. Note that they attacked and blamed the Afghanis for permitting this to occur, where the rightful blame rests on the USA. This story is told in the opening pages of this document, an interesting read from the US Institute for Peace, although I maintain my solution is in fact more peaceful for America than theirs.

So, do you want my type of change or Obama’s? Obama, McCain, it makes no difference. Don’t you see? They both support the "War on Terror." This war is not only unconstitutional as Congress has never declared war but, above all, these Wars are morally wrong. And I fail to understand why a population with predominantly Christian values such as the Sanctity of Life has been scared by a small group of frightened, weak, stateless terrorists. Why continue to permit war’s violence, oppression, torture, murder? Surely if all of us rose up as I have, we could end these Wars.

"The catch-all phrase - The War on Terror. In all honesty, has no more meaning than if you wants to wage a War on criminal gangsterism. Terrorism is a Tactic. You can’t have a War against a Tactic. It’s deliberately vague and nondefinable in order to justify and permit perpetual War anywhere and under any circumstances." - Dr. Ron Paul

Liberty or Death. Because the middle ground on regimes that support preemptive wars and torture holds only the barrens of Slavery.

Jake, the Champion of the Constitution.

If you agree with the sentiments in this article, you should probably join the Revolution at www.campaignforliberty.com

Here is a poem dedicated to the nine soldiers who together died a week ago, defending borders that were never theirs, in lands where they never lived, surrounded by a people they never knew who spoke languages they never spoke.

Author’s Note: Sorry for ranting a bit, but I just got back from a month off and found my country in even more of a mess due to our foreign and economic policies of incessant intervention. I will continue to bring this message until the Internet is regulated and sites like this one are closed down. It is my estimation that this should only take one or at most two more terrorist attacks. For those of you interested more in learning about the Afghanistan situation, I highly recommend the 2008 Academy Award Winning Best Documentary (and free!), Taxi to the Dark Side. A quote from Obama's cousin (in fact, I am not kidding! would hate to be at THAT family reunion), Dick Cheney, sets the theme for the movie. Yesterday Obama visited Bagram Base, one of the more forbidding backdrops of the movie. If the Reader feels like doing something, I make plenty of suggestions in other articles, but I fully support your free action. Any suggestions for me, just write them in below or send me an email.

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

As always, unlike the NFL, the author grants full permission to allow any accounts of, rebroadcasts, retransmissions, repostings in part or full of this article to your blog or anywhere else in order to promote the Restoration of our Republic.

Veritas numquam perit. Veritas odit moras. Veritas vincit. Truth never perishes. Truth hates delay. Truth conquers.

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