Obama's Folly

Zbigniew Brzezinski, the neoliberal National Security Adviser to Jimmy Carter, began arming the Afghan rebels (progenitors of both the Taliban and Al-qaeda) in the late 1970s even before Afghanistan was invaded by the Soviet Union. He is now a key foreign policy consultant to Obama. So we've come full circle and now follow the example of the Soviets, fighting the very same forces we unleashed to defeat them. Of course by sustaining the jihad against the godless Soviets we laid the groundwork for the current blowback against the latest Western installment of the "Great Game," initiated by 19th century European imperialists vying for spheres of influence in Central and South Asia. The vaunted "War on Terrorism" is nothing more than our attempt to impose hegemony on this volatile region of the world and is an integral part of our contention with a resurgent Russia and looming China for global domination. It would have been better for us and the Afghan people to have left Afghanistan as a satellite of the Soviets, which under Gorbachev was evolving into a benign social democratic welfare state. If we hadn't mobilized and supported the mujahedeen to fight the Soviets they very well might have succeeded in secularizing and pacifying the country, saving the world from insurgent Islamist reactionaries such as bin Ladin. Obama's policy for continued warfare to defeat the Taliban and Al-Qaeda is sheer folly and will only lead to more tragic consequences. Total withdrawal from the Middle East and South Asia is the only way to redress what we have wrought by our failed policy of global hegemony and regional domination. Use the money spent on war and destruction for peaceful reconstruction and reparations.