2010 will be another year of war for the United States and, from assassination campaigns to new fronts in what is no longer called the Global War on Terror but is no less global or based on terror, it could get a lot uglier. The Obama administration may, from time to time, talk withdrawal, but across the Middle East and Central Asia, the Pentagon and its contractors are digging in. In the meantime, more money, not less, is being put into preparations and planning for future wars. As William Hartung points out, “if the government’s current plans are carried out, there will be yearly increases in military spending for at least another decade.â€
When it comes to war, the only questions are: How wide? How much? Not: How long? Washington’s answer to that question has already been given, not in public pronouncements, but in that Pentagon budget and the planning that goes with it: forever and a day.
Of course, only diamonds are forever. Sooner or later, like great imperial powers of the past, we, too, will find that the stress of fighting a continuous string of wars in distant lands in inhospitable climes tells on us. Whether we “win†or not in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and now Yemen, we lose.
Yes. The government for which I voted did not act, is not acting, and most likely will not act the way I wanted. Don’t know what to call two different wars, but this global thing we’re doing seems to be the longest military engagement in which we’ve ever been involved. And if I’m not mistaken, we started all of it under pretense of looking for one man, Osama bin-Laden. If I vote next time, I will vote for the first time in my life as a Republican, because that way I will understand why my government is acting so irresponsibly.
Right with you on everything but voting Republican, though it doesn’t really matter anymore. Both parties belong to the rich, and war is good for biz…..
obama is great man