Letters from Linden
by JACK LINDEN
When it came to the wars begun by George W. Bush, I was an outspoken critic. I understood the retaliation against the Taliban and al Qaeda were a justified reaction to the attack on the United States. However, I did not and do not condone the continuing war in Afghanistan. Neither the Bush nor the Obama administration has justified the continuation of loss of life, injuries and resources for continuing this war.
We cannot justify expenditures of human and financial resources in a country that was tribal at best – and familial in structure. A functioning central, civil government was and is impossible to sustain in Afghanistan. If our goal was to wipe out a home for al Qaeda, we have done that. We cannot commit to creating a functioning government, and to assume we can is a figment of someone’s imagination.
The war in Iraq is even more insidious. The justification for beginning the war was built on a lie. We seem to forget that when asked about the reason for the war, the undersecretary of defense said that among the options to be presented to the public, only the allegation of weapons of mass destruction would be acceptable to the American public. That was seven years ago; we are still there.
We Americans have accepted so much since the September 2001 attack. We have allowed the government to impose restrictions on our liberties. We have panicked to the point of accepting about anything in the name of fighting terrorism. The idiotic idea that we can stop terrorism completely is exactly that – an idiotic idea.
While I have condemned the Bush administration, I must also condemn the actions and non-actions of the Obama administration. President Barack Obama has out-Bushed in many ways. I realize that some of his pledges have been stopped by the Congress but some have not. If we truly believe in American justice and its system, we would have closed the prison at Guantanamo Bay and tried all of the accused in our courts of law. Congress stopped President Obama from closing Guantanamo, but I think he did not try hard enough to fulfill his pledge.
I agree that the president is bringing some troops home from both Afghanistan and Iraq. But, he has not given us a legitimate reason for keeping some there. Can he really justify spending almost two billion dollars a week in those wars? Can he justify rebuilding there? That is what we are doing in Iraq and in Afghanistan. Those monies are needed here at home.
Not only has the president continued the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, he has expanded them into other countries. We know now that drones are being used in Pakistan. We also know that we have used ground troops there as well. Was it justifiable to use troops to capture and kill Osama bin Laden in Pakistan?
While many may justify using force against al Qaeda hideouts in Pakistan to pursue the war in Afghanistan, how do we justify using drones to kill people in Yemen? Do we need to send troops to Somalia? Has the congress approved the sending of 100 troops to Uganda? Where in the world is there now that a president can’t send troops?
Yes, President Obama, there is terror in the world and there are terrorists advocating it. You, who have studied law, should have learned that you can not destroy an idea. You do not need an army to combat terrorist threats against the United States. The U.S. can no longer police the entire world.
We voted for change and while you have tried to change the politics of the United States, you have continued and expanded the war policies of the past administration. It is time you changed that.
