More Knee-jerk Foreign Policy

Since Iraq’s American-installed Prime Minister asked us to set a date for departure, the focus has shifted back to Afghanistan. The Afghan War has been going on longer than the one in Iraq, and many Americans see it as the "good" war by comparison.

The Decider’s decision to wage the “bad” war was knee-jerk foreign policy. Now that we are putting that one behind us, we can concentrate on the “good” war. We went to Afghanistan, after all, to capture Osama bin Laden and Al Qaida, the culprits of 9/11.

Have you ever read Rudyard Kipling's short poem about Afghanistan?

"When you're wounded and lying on Afghanistan's plain,
And the women come out to cut up your remains,
Just role to your rifle and blow out your brains,
and go to your God like a soldier."

In short, a ground war in Afghanistan is hopeless. The Russians didn't learn from the 19th Century British experience there, and our government hasn't learned from the Russians or the British.

There has been too much knee-jerk foreign policy, and Sarah Palin, running for Vice President on the GOP ticket, continues the twitch.

Roger Cohen writes about all this in the International Herald Tribune http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/09/07/opinion/edcohen.php .

Americans need to pause to consider the goodness of our efforts in Afghanistan and Sarah’s knee-jerk foreign policy prescriptions.

Sarah brought down the GOP house when she criticized Barack Obama’s approach to international terrorists. “He’s worried,” she said, "that someone won’t read them their rights.”

McCain knows better about the treatment of captives because he’s been one. She hasn’t, and from all accounts, hasn’t thought much about Iraq, other than to tell a church group that America was following “God’s plan” by going to there.

Sarah is just another warmonger on the campaign trail.

-30-