Wars, endless wars
America’s fading, but its citizens are still pouring billions into wars
In short, the US will be committed to these two conflicts for a good while yet, and there is nothing like an etched-in-stone plan for concluding them.
BOB HERBERT, The New York Times
THE singer, Mr Edwin Starr, had a big hit in 1970 called War in which he asked again and again: "War, what is it good for?"
The United States economy is in free fall and Americans all across the country are downsizing their standards of living. The nation as we’ve known it is fading before our very eyes, but its citizens are still pouring billions of dollars into wars in Afghanistan and Iraq with missions they are still unable to define.
Even as the US begins plans to reduce troop commitments in Iraq, it is sending thousands of additional troops into Afghanistan. The strategic purpose of this escalation, as US Defence Secretary Robert Gates acknowledged, is not at all clear.
America invaded Afghanistan more than seven years ago. They have not broken the back of Al Qaeda or the Taliban and they have not captured or killed Osama bin Laden. They do not even have an escalation strategy, much less an exit strategy.
An honest assessment of the situation, taking into account the woefully corrupt and ineffective Afghan government, would lead inexorably to such terms as fiasco and quagmire.
Instead of cutting its losses, America appears to be doubling down.
As for Iraq, President Barack Obama announced that combat operations would cease by the end of August 2010. But, perhaps as many as 50,000 troops would still remain in Iraq for a "period of transition".
In short, the US will be committed to these two conflicts for a good while yet, and there is nothing like an etched-in-stone plan for concluding them. I can easily imagine a scenario in which Afghanistan and Iraq both heat up and the US, caught in an extended economic disaster at home, undermines its fragile recovery efforts in the same way that societies have undermined themselves since the dawn of time – with endless warfare.
Americans have already paid a fearful price for these wars.
Much of the country can work itself up to a high pitch of outrage because a banker or an automobile executive flies on a private jet. But the US will send young men and women by the thousands off to repeated excursions through the hell of combat – three tours, four tours or more – without raising so much as a peep of protest.
President Lyndon Johnson, despite a booming economy, lost his Great Society to the Vietnam War. He knew what he was risking. He would later tell author Doris Kearns Goodwin: "If I left the woman I really loved – the Great Society – in order to get involved with that bitch of a war on the other side of the world, then I would lose everything at home. All my programmes … All my dreams …"
As President Obama fights for his dream of an economic recovery, he might look over his shoulder at the link between Vietnam and the ruins of Mr Johnson’s presidency.
