Afghanistan Rekindled

US President Barack Obama is going to send 30,000 extra troops to Afghanistan, prolonging the war, and putting more lives at risk. He also has set a time for withdrawal, one that is many, many years too late, even if it is only 18 months away. President Obama as well as his predecessor George W. Bush, both avoided history instead of learning from it. Here are some interesting thoughts:

• Even if there is a withdrawal at the stated time, it will be almost to a month, the same length of stay as the Russian who went home in defeat in 1989.
• A former commander of Soviet forces in Afghanistan has warned history is being repeated in the war-ravaged country as the United States and its allies become increasingly mired in an "unwinnable war."
• The allies should have left when the Taliban were first defeated, and let the Afghans run their own country. Trying to build Afghanistan into something it is never going to be is futile and naive.
• If the Taliban had become belligerent again, then they could have been defeated again in an appropriate, short, sharp reminder.
• Afghanistan is about as important as invading Somalia or other backwater. Leave them alone and spend our hard earned taxes on poverty and education.
  

Obama's Peace (sorry, Political) Prize

Here is an excerpt from a Reuters article that encapsulates my feelings on this subject...

The awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday to President Barack Obama, the third prominent U.S. Democrat to win recently, only seemed to reinforce an impression the prize can be as much about politics as about peace.

Some observers interpreted the Nobel less than nine months into Obama's presidency, before he had had time to pursue much peace policy, as a last dagger from Europe tossed at Obama's Republican predecessor, former President George W. Bush, who was unpopular there.