During the campaign, I had hopes that Obama was making speeches about increasing the U.S. military presence in Afghanistan as a way to toss a bone to the right-wing militarists in this country. I was wrong. Obama is increasing U.S troop levels by 17,000 in Afghanistan, starting in May. Big mistake. I found a very interesting article in The Asia Times that analyzes what is really going on. You ought to read it so that you understand the reality in Afghanistan. Once again, the U.S. is deaf to alternative viewpoints about foreign policy. The only thing the U.S. establishment understands is violence, violence, and more violence.

Update 2/22/2009: Here is an article that appeared in The Washington Post, lest I be accused of being “too contrarian”. There appears to be some hope that Obama hasn’t been completely seduced by the arguments of the neo-cons and the militarists, as he has said that he won’t make any more changes until the end of March, when his Afghanistan policy review will be complete. To this Vietnam veteran, though, I think Afghanistan is an example of George Santayana’s famous dictum of not learning from history. My stance on this is that violence solves nothing at all. As Boris Yeltsin once said, “You can build a throne with bayonets, but you can’t sit on it long.”

Update 3/1/2009: Here is an interesting article by retired Air Force Lieutenant Colonel William Astore that makes a very good case for taking a very hard look at just what our troops are doing in Iraq and Afghanistan. Why are we pouring our blood and treasure down these rat holes?