“Both McCain and Obama are myopic, how the US is going to get the funds to increase troops in Iraq and Afghanistan in a scenario where there is a serious financial crises at home is a puzzle to the poor American tax-payers. Both candidates appear to be unintelligent, and out of touch with reality.”
by Saybhan Samat
(October 20, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) The campaign for the presidential elections in the US has reached fever pitch in the background of a serious financial crisis which is unlikely to be solved. All countries will follow with interest the on-going campaign measuring how the result will affect them. Many are of the view that McCain and Obama are both two sides of the same coin. Not going into a detailed analysis of their policies which by large are similar, their attitude to war in Iraq and Afghanistan is not to say the least unintelligent. While McCain advocates a bigger surge into Iraq to defeat the Al-Qaeeda and other extremist groups Obama wants to increase ten-fold the troop presence of US forces to defeat the Taliban.
McCain is least concerned that five years after the US invasion, Iraq lies in ruins. Divided, violent, depleted, unstable, rife with sectarian war, a hotbed of terrorism and with 20 per cent of its population killed, wounded, displaced or in asylum in neighboring countries, Iraq bears no resemblance to its recent past. Meanwhile, the allied regimes in the Middle East like Saudi-Arabia, Egypt, Jordon and Persian Gulf emirates, which the Republican Bush administration vowed to democratize after invading Iraq, are now more entrenched, more autocratic than ever. McCain ignores that the losing war in Iraq is costing the US treasury, financially as well as politically is now increasingly a matter of public debate in the US, as much as the Vietnam war, was a matter of public outrage 40years ago. Except for the Vietnam war, the Iraq war- now in its sixth year- is the longest and most costly in the post-independence history of the US. It has lasted longer than the American civil war, the Mexican American war, the Spanish American war, World war I, World war II, the Korean war the first Persian Gulf war, not to mention the series of brutal guerrilla wars incited by the Reagan administration in South America during the 1980s. War, killing, maiming and now torture seems to be in the blood and psyche of American politicians. They, since independence have spawned a culture of psychopathic violence on countries that refuse and stand up against there hegemony.
Alternatively, the Obama promise to send more troops into Afghanistan if he is elected :- The UN Human Development Fund a couple of months ago reported that Afghanistan has declined in every category: average life expectancy has gone down, malnutrition is wide- spread, literacy has decreased and more than half the population is living-below the poverty line, since the US invasion. Hundreds of thousands of people have been internally displaced by the war. The occupation has created plenty of misery. Afghanistan has also earned the dubious distinction of supplying 92% of the world’s opium. After the US invasion Afghanistan is now the world’s largest narcotic-state. Presently the number of innocent civilian deaths on account of indiscriminate US bombings have increased to record levels.
There is now a growing opinion in Europe, particularly by the members of the Nato that the war in Afghanistan is unwinnable. They adduce the view that instead of going in deeper, as the US is urging, Nato should plan an exit-strategy as it would be the sensible option for the US is and Nato to implement. However Obama does not think that way, he wants to increase US presence in Afghanistan by sending in thousands of more troops.
Both McCain and Obama are myopic, how the US is going to get the funds to increase troops in Iraq and Afghanistan in a scenario where there is a serious financial crises at home is a puzzle to the poor American tax-payers. Both candidates appear to be unintelligent, and out of touch with reality. Whoever comes into power will subject the US into a crisis which she will never be able to come out of. Maybe President Ahamedinejad’s forecast at the 63rd session of the UN General Assembly on September 23rd, 2008 – “American empire nearing its end.” May come true.
The whole trouble is American politicians are not elected to serve the interests of the people who elect them, or to do what is right or just. The entire system is a fraud by which people are led to believe that they have a say in who rules them, a fraud that fools enough of the people enough of the time. The illusion is maintained and re-enacted every 4 years so that the masses can be deluded into thinking that they have a free choice.
In reality, regardless of who is elected to the White House in November, there will be little changes in US policy. The endless cycle of wars that is a systematic a need of the US establishment will continue no matter who occupies the White House. Only when the US suffers a military defeat comparable to that suffered by the Soviet Union in Afghanistan will the US administration change its policies. Presently the US is the most hated nation in the world. Since the creation of the UN in 1948, it is on record that the US has bombed no less than 23 countries.
- Sri Lanka Guardian
There is now a growing opinion in Europe, particularly by the members of the Nato that the war in Afghanistan is unwinnable. They adduce the view that instead of going in deeper, as the US is urging, Nato should plan an exit-strategy as it would be the sensible option for the US is and Nato to implement. However Obama does not think that way, he wants to increase US presence in Afghanistan by sending in thousands of more troops.
Both McCain and Obama are myopic, how the US is going to get the funds to increase troops in Iraq and Afghanistan in a scenario where there is a serious financial crises at home is a puzzle to the poor American tax-payers. Both candidates appear to be unintelligent, and out of touch with reality. Whoever comes into power will subject the US into a crisis which she will never be able to come out of. Maybe President Ahamedinejad’s forecast at the 63rd session of the UN General Assembly on September 23rd, 2008 – “American empire nearing its end.” May come true.
The whole trouble is American politicians are not elected to serve the interests of the people who elect them, or to do what is right or just. The entire system is a fraud by which people are led to believe that they have a say in who rules them, a fraud that fools enough of the people enough of the time. The illusion is maintained and re-enacted every 4 years so that the masses can be deluded into thinking that they have a free choice.
In reality, regardless of who is elected to the White House in November, there will be little changes in US policy. The endless cycle of wars that is a systematic a need of the US establishment will continue no matter who occupies the White House. Only when the US suffers a military defeat comparable to that suffered by the Soviet Union in Afghanistan will the US administration change its policies. Presently the US is the most hated nation in the world. Since the creation of the UN in 1948, it is on record that the US has bombed no less than 23 countries.
- Sri Lanka Guardian
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