Post 2.10 - Afghani Quagmire
I was listening to the Leslie Marshall Show online last week, and the guest was a representative of the families of the 9/11 victims. The discussion surrounded our current situation in Afghanistan, and whether American troops should still be there now that Osama bin Laden is dead. The premise was that our goal of taking out our enemy had been accomplished. The guest also felt that our involvement in Afghanistan was primarily to support the military-industrial complex and specific military contractors, rather than achieve a more altruistic or emotional goal. While I agree that the Bush Administration tricked us into Iraq and squandered the planetary goodwill we enjoyed following 9/11, Afghanistan was a very specific and special situation. The American media did not pay much attention to Afghanistan prior to 2001. The Taliban had come to power around 1995, and I was living in Europe at that time. There were already deep concerns as to how women were being treated, as well as the lac...