My last couple of posts have related to the impending decision President Obama HAS to make regarding our involvement in Afganistan. This is going to be a very difficult decision and, of course, the only thing we can count on as Americans is that FROM THE START the Republicans will be deriding the decision – no matter what it is. That is the part in all this that BUGS me the most. The Republicans should SHUT THEIR MOUTHS and get behind whatever Obama, Gates, and the military generals come up with as a solution to the problem CREATED BY INCOMPETENT REPUBLICAN DECISIONS! And the worst offender in the 7 years we were in Afganistan during the Bush years was none other than the leading critic of whatever President Obama is going to decide (criticism aimed before the decision is even made) – we’re talking about the one and only (thank heaven) DICK CHENEY!

This man is unbelievable. First off, he continues to travel around to any venue which will listen to him proclaiming that the Bush administration “kept us safe,” and that the Obama administration is “weak” and endangering the safety of America. I’ve stated many times what I believe is the just solution to the Dick Cheney problem – and I’ll revisit that proposal before I finish this post, but first lets have a discussion of the REAL issue here. The truth is that Bush/Cheney DID NOT KEEP US SAFE! The evidence is OVERWHELMING that they should have stopped the 9/11 attacks before they happened. So his claims that they “kept us safe,” despite the worst attack on American soil in our history happening on BUSH/CHENEY’S “watch,” shows the lack of integrity and/or ability to own up to mistakes from this war profiteering thug. This is bad enough, but it gets worse!

As I’ve mentioned in the previous few posts on this site, I’m reading “Descent into Chaos” by Ahmed Rashid – a distinguished Pakistani journalist who’s been right in the middle of the Afganistan fiasco – which lays out in painstaking detail the FAILURES of Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld RIGHT FROM THE OUTSET of the Afganistan invasion. These people had NO IDEA what they were doing/getting into and, after viewing the past 8 years, one has to wonder what their original intentions were. Supposedly, we went into Afganistan to “get” Osama bin Laden and his al Qaeda network – toppling the Taliban “government” of Afganistan in the process. Neither the Taliban nor al Qaeda were able to put up much of a fight, and the capturing or killing of bin Laden should have happened. Clearly, at the point in time of our invasion of Afganistan, the US – under the direction of Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld had their eye on Iraq – actually planning this from the time the World Trade Center was crumbling into a pile of bodies and whatever the building had been constructed from. Capturing bin Laden WAS NOT A PRIORITY for the Bush administration. These “neocons” had been conspiring on how to topple Saddam Hussein for years before Bush was voted into the White House by a 5 to 4 decision of our Supreme Court (a decision which will go down in history as a MAJOR BLACK MARK against our highest court) and the 9/11 attacks were just the “trigger” they needed – although they had to make it look as if Afganistan was a priority first.

I could write for seemingly endless pages about the incompetence of Bush/Cheney, but the arrogance of Cheney to go around the country CONTINUING HIS EFFORT TO UNDERMINE OBAMA is unbelievable to me. HE’S EVEN ENLISTED HIS DAUGHTER TO THE “CAUSE.” Personally, I don’t understand why the so-called “liberal media” even gives these people a platform anymore. No one in the media seems to have the energy to RESEARCH Afganistan so that these lies can be called out for what they are. I have no idea what Obama’s going to do (I’m feeling he’ll follow General Mcchrystal’s advice) and whether or not I will agree with his choice. However, this decision is going to be REALLY IMPORTANT to us as a nation, and just as all of us who didn’t support Bush in 2000 got behind him in the effort to capture or kill bin Laden, so should EVERYONE get behind Obama in his attempt to regain control in Afganistan from the Taliban and ultimately FINISH THE JOB of capturing or killing bin Laden and neutralizing Al Qaeda that Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld abandoned.

Let me just point out a FEW reasons why Cheney has NO CREDIBILITY in this decision or fight AT ALL: for one, he led the “charge” to pull our “assets” out of Afganistan and into Iraq WHEN WE COULD HAVE FINISHED OFF BOTH THE TALIBAN AND BIN LADEN! There were at least two occasions that I’ve read about (in more than one publication) where bin Laden was “cornered” and the American military – through the incompetent leadership of Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld (Secretary of Defense), and Tommy Franks the “General in Charge – refused to put American troops into Afganistan to FINISH THE JOB! According to Rashid, the Taliban were ready to surrender and Franks refused to send in the necessary troops while Rumsfeld gave the Pakistani’s permission to airlift out their ISI (Pakistan’s answer to the CIA and well known supporters of the Taliban and al Qaeda) – and, of course, in the process they took the leaders of the Taliban along with the leaders of Al Qaeda and thousands of their fighters. Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld BLEW IT! And that’s just for starters. They essentially ceded leadership in Afganistan to the CIA, who in turn undermined the Afgan government that we helped set up by throwing millions upon millions of dollars at the warlords in Afganistan who were a big part of the problem – thus insuring there would be no effective central government.

Yes, it continues to get worse. For some strange reason the Bush/Cheney administration “threw” over 10 BILLION dollars to Pervez Musharraf, the Pakistani dictator who had been, and continued supporting both the Taliban and al Qaeda. Musharraf played Bush for such a “sucker” that it reminds me, as a sixth grade school teacher, of 11 year old students manipulating adults and getting away with it. The more they get away with, the more they “push their luck.” And, the Pakistani’s came to wonder “how stupid” are these Americans? Bush/Cheney kept giving the Pakistani’s money, the Pakistani’s kept funneling a percentage of that money to the very people we were fighting, and Bush continued to compliment Musharraf as a “trustworthy partner.” When you read Rashid’s book you almost feel embarrassment to be an American and have leaders who are so gullible. Here’s the rub for me, despite their failures, despite the utter stupidity of their actions, despite the obvious resurgence of both the Taliban and Al Qaeda under their watch, you’ve got the architect of this failure going around criticizing the person who’s trying valiantly to correct the many blunders.

You’ve also got people in the media who refuse to take the time to understand what the situation REALLY IS, and they give the Cheney’s and others a platform to continue their attempt at undermining Obama without the slightest challenge. It’s almost as if ignorance is truly “bliss” in America. Of course, part of the Cheney’s agenda is to somehow create the misconception that the Republicans really were effective in their SEVEN years prosecuting the war in Afganistan – which is a JOKE. (unfortunately a very bad joke) To top all of the military malfeasance off is the fact that during the Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld invasion of Afganistan they also allowed the opium problem to escalate. In fact, they virtually nurtured it to the point where opium production today is exponentially greater than it was prior to 9/11 and well over 3/4 of the world’s heroin comes from the poppy fields of Afganistan. Both Cheney and Rumsfeld participated in decisions which essentially allowed this to happen, not only resulting in a dramatic increase in the world drug trade, but helping the Taliban to regain strength as they used drug profits to finance their insurgency. UNBELIEVABLE when you really think about it.

And Cheney was right at the front in supporting the dictator of Uzbekistan, Islam Karimov, who was – just like Musharraf in Pakistan – gleaning as much money from the American administration as possible while governing in a way that would turn the stomach of most Amercians if they even had a clue. In supporting Karimov – so that we could maintain a base in his country and so that we could “render” captured “combatants” to a “black hole” prison in his country where they would be tortured out of the sight of civilized people – we were giving money and aid to a dictator who was as adroit at killing his own people as the dictator we “threw out” of Iraq, Saddam Hussein. In one instance, it was reported that as many as 1500 Uzbeks were slaughtered during a demonstration against Karimov’s policies. Additionally, much of the drug smuggling from Afganistan went through Uzbekistan and Karimov also allowed both the Taliban and al Qaeda to train their fighters on “underground” bases inside his country.

As I read this book on the disaster which was the Bush/Cheney policy in Afganistan (I’m getting close to 30 books now on the folly of the Bush administration in Iraq, Afganistan, and at home in America) I just get more disgusted. They not only allowed al Qaeda to get away, initially, to reconstitute itself – partially with our funds which were originally intended for Pakistan, but the US also allowed their incompetent decisionmaking to undermine the prospects for democracy in Afganistan and Central Asia. If you’re interested in this topic, please read Rashid’s book – it’s an eye opener! Since President Obama moved into the White House I have stated on many occasions that my one MAJOR area of disagreement with him is his policy of “looking forward and not backward” regarding the Bush/Cheney administration. He says he doesn’t “want the distraction” while there is so much to do. Well, with the likes of Dick Cheney running around trying to undermine one decision he makes after another, the distraction is there whether he likes it or not.

And, worse than that, as I’ve stated many times – we are now considered around the world as a nation which tortures. We are considered to be a nation that is OK with our leaders committing war crimes (and, believe me, the more I read about what was done in our name, the worse it gets). By looking the other way, President Obama is potentially leaving this mark as a permanent mark against the United States. We were once considered the world leaders in the fight for human rights. As I read more and more about the Bush/Cheney administration, I’m seeing that they had a basic disregard for human rights (accept their own and the people in their inner circle). They supported countries who were beyond abusive in human rights violations and committed NUMEROUS violations which amounted to WAR CRIMES themselves as long as those countries would pretend to be our allies in EXCHANGE FOR OUR MONEY. And, now we have the main architect of the WAR CRIMES strutting around this nation as if he’s some kind of foriegn policy expert – when his decisions have been FAILURE UPON FAILURE. Dick Cheney should be in jail, not on TV criticizing President Obama’s attempt to fix his FOLLY in Afganistan!