My thoughts tonight are centered on Barack Obama’s pending decision regarding Afganistan. This will be a very difficult decision and a crucial one regarding his Presidency. It is just one more “thing” that George W Bush TOTALLY SCREWED UP and left for Obama to “clean up,” just like Iraq, the economy, the Justice Department, the environment, and our position as leader of the “free” world. To listen to Republicans you would think that Obama is the one who created this mess and that when they left office everything was A-OK and we were all “safe.”

In fact, just the other day I happened upon Fox “News” (I’m sure if you’re reading this you understand the quotes are because Fox is nothing more than the major propoganda wing of the Republican party – NO WAY a news outlet) and Liz Cheney and Bill Kristol were announcing the “startup” of an organization called “Keeping America Safe.” As astonishing as it might seem, their first “add” or spot was centered on how Barack Obama is not keeping America safe and it implied that the neocons under GW Bush and Liz Cheney’s DEPLORABLE father did keep us safe. This is typical Republican dihonesty, denial, and disillusionment! Kristol was one of the major proponents along with Cheney’s father DICK for invading Iraq and, therefore, allowing Osama bin Laden TO GO FREE! For some reason they would STILL HAVE US BELIEVE that it was Sadam Hussein who attacked America on 9/11 – and, unfortunately there are enough Americans who are either uninformed enough or STUPID enough to believe them and keep the Repubicans as part of the national discussion, and Fox on the air. As one person the other day put it, if you watch Fox “news” you wouldn’t believe that the gravest danger to the United States is al Qaeda in Pakistan along with Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal, but instead it would be Acorn! THESE PEOPLE ARE UNBELIEVABLE!

Another example of how they just REFUSE TO OWN UP TO REALITY relates to my last posting regarding Rush Limbaugh, the de-facto head of the Republican party and a “water carrier” on the public airwaves for the neocons. It was recently announced that Limbaugh, along with the owner of the St. Louis Blues hockey team – Dave Checketts – was involved in a bid to purchase the St Louis Rams of the National Football league. Now, if you have any idea about professional sports in America, that is one place where race does not play a factor in who’s on the teams (with the exception possibly of the coaching staffs and owners, although even that – well the coaching staffs – appears to be changing). In fact, in the NFL approximately 70% of the players are African Americans. Limbaugh, of course, has a long history of racist rheotric on his talk radio show and, at one time, he had the opportunity to be a part of the ESPN Sunday night broadcast but lasted only one week because neither the players nor the audience could tolerate his racist remarks. By one account, it took less than 10 minutes for him to make a comment that caused him to be fired after the first night on the job. His comment related to Donavan McNabb and implied that McNabb got special treatment as a quarterback due to the fact he was Black (not the exact quote, but my summation of it). The truth, of course – as with many of Limbaugh’s ridiculous comments when he’s on the air – was almost the opposite. The road to stardom for McNabb and other Black quarterbacks was much more difficult specifically because of the racial stereotypes that existed in this country for many many years – stereotypes similar to Limbaugh’s, which, when he said it, were being overcome and were no longer passe`.

The good news: today it was announced that Rush Limbaugh was dropped from the team of investors attempting to purchase the Rams due to the fact that National Football league owners were making it clear they would not accept a proposal from any group which he was a part of. Both the commisioner of the league and the players association along with an increasing number of owners (some very conservative people in their own rights) came out saying that someone with the history of divisiveness along racial lines (or any othe lines as well) such as Limbaugh has no place in professional sports because profesional sports are all about bringing different peoples together. Of course Limbaugh reacted in the typical fashion you would expect from him and almost paralleling the reaction of the Republicans who were voted out of office in 2008.

IT WAS NOT HIS FAULT! RUSH LIMBAUGH IS THE VICTIM OF THE “VAST LIBERAL CONSPIRACY.” Honestly, he reminds me of the sixth grade student that I have who lies about what school he went to in the fifth grade while I’m holding the records in my hand. Nothing is ever his fault, everyone’s out to get him (if you’re confused whether or not that last statement is about Limbaugh or the student, the reality is that it could be about either one). Limbaugh actually said, “This is not about me, this is about the Liberals trying to end conservatism in America. This is about the future of America.” Talk about your self serving, arrogant statement shrouded in TOTAL DENIAL! I’m sure you could talk face to face with Limbaugh and he’d vigorously defend that he’s not a racist. He’s a wonderful example of the guy who can’t see the forest for the trees.

The irony of Limbaugh’s statements today are that he was a part of the concerted Republican propoganda campaign which began about the time his talk radio show started up to end liberalism in America. And, they almost succeeded. In fact, today anyone in national politics who’s a liberal refers to themselves as a progressive. They’ve virtually abandoned the term liberal because of Limbaugh and Republicans like him. Remember, their goal was the PERMANENT REPUBLICAN MAJORITY. They were attempting to gain control of the media, the congress, the White House, the Surpreme Court, the Justice Department and therefore control of every facet of our government. AND THEY ALMOST SUCCEEDED. Only the folly of George W Bush/Dick Cheney stopped them. They only needed one more term in the White House to have a strangle hold on the Supreme Court that would have lasted through most of my daughter’s lifetime and a large part of my granddaughter (this is still possible due to the ages of the “conservative” judges on the court – which is one reason I keep writing – America can’t fall for these thugs again or disaster is still possible). Remember, these guys had developed voting machines that could be easily hacked and which have been proven to change the vote from Democrat to Republican in more than one election. There’s ample evidence that I’ve seen showing the possibility that neither of GW Bush’s terms were legitimate because of the voting machine irregularity which never became common knowledge or was fully investigated.

This gets me to President Obama’s agonizing decision regarding Afganistan (if you truly want to understand why this is such a difficult and important decision read “Descent into Chaos” by Ahmed Rashid, a noteworthy Pakistani reporter and expert on both Pakistan and Afganistan). The invasion of Afganistan should have been over in less than a year. Our purpose for going in there was to capture or kill Osama bin Laden, the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks on America and to remove the Taliban from power in Afganistan because they were complicit in al Qaeda’s everyday existence. Al Qaeda had their training camps in the rugged mountains of Afganisan and with the support of the Taliban and the Pakistani’s they were training and equipping “terrorists” who were causing havoc all over the world. To make a long story short, we (America and it’s allies) had bin Laden trapped more than once and let him get away. In fact, that we let him get away is suspicious enough to me that I’ve often wondered why there’s never been a formal investigation into the why. However, that’s a story for another day.

The United States essentially destabilized Afganistan by routing the Taliban and then abandoned any semblence of responsibility (that had any chance for success) as they diverted their assets and their military focus into Iraq (of course, they later did essentially the same thing in Iraq). We all know what a disaster Iraq has been, and I’m anxiously looking forward to the day when President Obama actually brings our troops home and allows the Iraqi’s to solve their own problems in their own way. I can vitually guarantee you that the way they go about this will not be something that we in America would approve of. But, if anything has been learned in the 6+ years we’ve been sacrificing our troops in Iraq (for what at some point in time will be regarded as a mistake of MONUMENTAL proportions – possibly worse than we can imagine – and, I really hope on wrong on this) is that we DO NOT UNDERSTAND THEM, and our leaders were ignorant about the ethnic divisions in that country which still exist to this day. (many people claim the “surge” was successful in Iraq, but I believe it’s just putting off the inevitable – with a cost of almost 1500 American lives to this point)

With our troops and our focus in Iraq we put Hamad Karzai into power in Afganistan and then gave him NO SUPPORT. In fact, the CIA actually funded the warlords who were in control of the various ethnic regions of the countryside making it impossible for Karzai to set up an effective central government. The United States offered far too little in the form of economic aid, and didn’t come through on what was offered – as did virtually every other country which promised to help Karzai set up an effective government. Everything the Untited States, under Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld did led to the resurgence of the Taliban and al Qaeda. In fact, the way the Bush administration was going about this “war” led the Pakistani’s and the Afgans to view the Americans as the terrorists. If you try to view this from the standpoint of villagers in the middle of nowhere who are illiterate and poor and easily victimized by organizations like the Taliban who are armed to the teeth and ruthless, a drone strike that kills 15 of your family and/or neighbors looks little different than a suicide bomber who does the same thing. The Pakistani’s were taking money by the billions from the Bush administration and funneling portions of it to the Taliban and just observing how stupid the American government was and how easily they were decieved as they were doing this. What a TERRIBLE IRONY – The Taliban were/are funded mainly by the Pakistani’s (and U.S. dollars).

The end result of this is that the Taliban are back in Afganistan in force, the Karzai government is still in office but basically hamstrung and relying on things like the drug trade to provide the income they need to function (because we wouldn’t provide it). Al Qaeda is alive and well in Pakistan with the support of the government we’ve been unsuccessfully trying to buy off with our money (they take the money, but they allow al Qaeda virtual freedom in the Northwest Provinces). Pakistan still has something like 100 nuclear warheads and this is the most dangerous challenge to America in the world. Al Qaeda is being supported not only by Pakistan, but by Saudi Arabia and other countries that we’ve continued to do business with because of our reliance on oil and at some point in time we have to face up to the reality of the situation or face some terrible consequences. THERE ARE NO EASY ANSWERS HERE.

The point is that the Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld/Krisol et al neocons got us in this place and now they are busily trying to take advantage of the ignorance of the American people regarding what’s going on over there to continue their CONSTANT EFFORT TO UNDERMINE THE PRESIDENCY OF BARACK OBAMA! Can you imagine what they’d be saying if the Democrats were doing this when they were in power? I would welcome a legitimate discusion of the issues involved. There actually are Republicans who could contribute to whatever decision Obama ultimately makes and it would be great to have a sense of unity as we, as Americans, try to extricate ourselves from this HORRIBLY PRECARIOUS position we were left in by Bush/Cheney. It is worst than ironic in my mind that the very people who created this fiasco are the ones starting a “Keep America Safe” organization – WHEN THEY’VE PROVEN THAT, GIVEN POWER, THEY DO EXACTLY THE OPPOSITE. We are as unsafe as we’ve been in my lifetime (and I was born in the late fourties)! Most Americans believe Iraq was Bush/Cheney’s major blunder, but history will prove that it was Afganistan/Pakistan!