9/11, Afghanistan and American foreign policy
It seems contrary to the public will to reflect both thoughtfully and honestly about the events of eight years ago today, their causes, and the courses of action we have pursued both leading up to those events and since then.
It amazes me that we seem to have learned nothing from the fall of one of the mightiest superpowers the world has ever known, and seem bent on following the USSR's catastrophic path in Afghanistan, which is given much of the credit for the eventual collapse of the USSR.
Naturally, we take strong offense at such a horrendous attack as that of 9/11, but does it really serve our own interests, or just those of our enemies, when we recklessly throw huge proportions of our national resources into violent retribution? The fact is that we have done little to harm those who attacked us, and may arguably have strengthened them in the long run, by our pursuit of wars in irrelevant Iraq and impossible Afghanistan.
How could any intelligent evaluation of the pattern of events in recent world history lead to the conclusion that committing the lives of our soldiers and wasting our vast national treasury to fighting those who would harm us is better than committing resources to building international good will by reducing the gaping rift between the high standard of living we in the US enjoy and the lowest standards of living which are so widespread throughout the world? For a fraction of the expense we have committing to killing people and destroying property, we could have raised the standard of living of so much of the rest of the world by an appreciable enough amount that anyone seeking to plot against the US would be seen by all of their peers as simply irrational and self-destructive.
Our president, in whom so many of vested hopes for real and significant change from the inexplicably ignorant and destructive policies of the last eight years, has chosen not only to pursue, but defend as vital, the war effort in Afghanistan against an enemy who, despite our best efforts, has spread and increased in power and influence in almost every part of that country. Why? Are we simply afraid to do what is right? Are our leaders too fearful of the inevitable political consequences of doing that which is truly in out national interests as opposed to that which merely seems to be? Don't we deserve better?
It amazes me that we seem to have learned nothing from the fall of one of the mightiest superpowers the world has ever known, and seem bent on following the USSR's catastrophic path in Afghanistan, which is given much of the credit for the eventual collapse of the USSR.
Naturally, we take strong offense at such a horrendous attack as that of 9/11, but does it really serve our own interests, or just those of our enemies, when we recklessly throw huge proportions of our national resources into violent retribution? The fact is that we have done little to harm those who attacked us, and may arguably have strengthened them in the long run, by our pursuit of wars in irrelevant Iraq and impossible Afghanistan.
How could any intelligent evaluation of the pattern of events in recent world history lead to the conclusion that committing the lives of our soldiers and wasting our vast national treasury to fighting those who would harm us is better than committing resources to building international good will by reducing the gaping rift between the high standard of living we in the US enjoy and the lowest standards of living which are so widespread throughout the world? For a fraction of the expense we have committing to killing people and destroying property, we could have raised the standard of living of so much of the rest of the world by an appreciable enough amount that anyone seeking to plot against the US would be seen by all of their peers as simply irrational and self-destructive.
Our president, in whom so many of vested hopes for real and significant change from the inexplicably ignorant and destructive policies of the last eight years, has chosen not only to pursue, but defend as vital, the war effort in Afghanistan against an enemy who, despite our best efforts, has spread and increased in power and influence in almost every part of that country. Why? Are we simply afraid to do what is right? Are our leaders too fearful of the inevitable political consequences of doing that which is truly in out national interests as opposed to that which merely seems to be? Don't we deserve better?