Why The Neutralist? The term Isolationist implies a narrow Fortress America outlook and is used as an epithet. The term Neutralist does not indicate someone hiding out from the world. No one calls the Swiss isolationists. The Wilsonian world view is old, tired and wrong. Our interventions have been less and less successful and now the failure can no longer be covered up.

Wednesday, October 06, 2010

Gene Healy says it all: Not even our leaders know why we are in Afghanistan

Country Joe and the Fish may have been a one hit wonder, but their song about Viet Nam resonates today,

and its 1,2,3 what are we fightin for?
don't ask me i don't give a dam

plus ça change, ya know. According to Gene Healy, nobody knows why. Going out on a limb here, but after the half decade mark, any war our country is in, the reasons will get murky and the original justifications will no longer be relevant (as if they were to begin with). Just ask Osama down in Gitmo getting ready for his trial.

It appears Mr. Healy has read the Woodward book so I don't have to. Thank you, Gene. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Anyway, here is a lovely quote,

Last October, Woodward reports, National Security Adviser James Jones called an emergency meeting with Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. "The president was not happy": After countless meetings and dueling memoranda, "they had not found a way to articulate why the United States was in Afghanistan. What were America's interests?"

Yeah, all we gotta do is find what we believe and then tell the lumpenistas. Yeah, that's the ticket.

Did it occur to any one of the assembled sinecure holders that if you can't explain the reason, there may be no reason?

Nahhhhhh.

Tuesday, October 05, 2010

Taliban attack the supply lines-World surprised by the obvious tactic

The Taliban has no air force, no predator drones, but that does not mean they are stupid. One does have to ask why they have taken so long to gear up their strategy of attacking supply lines? No matter, it's here.

I know my countrymen are not a nation of geographers, but a simply looking at a map of Afghanistan should be a wake up call. First thing you notice, no seacoast. It is landlocked and borders many countries, none of which are our close allies, and most of whom our relations with are problematic.

So the Taliban in one of its incarnations are attacking the tanker trucks that supply our forces over the road from Pakistan. The question becomes, can they do it enough to make our effort unsustainable?

So it's happening now. Actually, it's happened before, and it is not just the Taliban that can apply pressure.

Hey maybe we can cobble together another supply line and keep the game going until victory, or whatever. Bet on whatever.