65 / Not happy, Obama
Barak Obama is going to send another 30,000 troops to Afghanistan. Yeah, that'll bring peace! To his credit he also promises to start troop withdrawals from Afghanistan within 18 months. I am very, very wary of these tactics.
For starters, what do you expect the Taliban to do now they know their enemy will leave in about two years? Perhaps just wait it out? Quite likely. Oh, you may also ask, 'why are we in Afghanistan?' So does Bob Ellis. You can do worse than read his essay on that subject.
A news-snippet on tv last night (ABC's Angry Beast) mentioned that intelligence sources in the US estimate there to be no more than 100 hard core al-Qaida operatives in Afghanistan/Pakistan. Why on earth are thirty thousand more troops needed to find them? And why have they not been found and dealt with years ago?
Also in the news recently - though well hidden - was the US's repeated refusal to ban land mines. Why? "Because we need them!" Well, for what exactly? Land mines and cluster bombs are insidious weapons (even more insidious than all the other ones) because as unexploded munitions they linger on for years and decades. Long after the war circus has moved on, they keep killing and maiming civilians. Farmers, women, children. There has been a decades-long international effort to ban them (Princess Diana was fighting for a ban.) One major obstacle against a ban is the US - and Barak Obama has confirmed America's opposition to phasing them out.
Not happy, Obama. Your halo is slipping. I'll be watching you.