Krigen i Afghanistan

Barack Obamas avgjerd om å eskalere den allereie tapte krigen i Afghanistan i ein situasjon der ein heller burde satse på ein exitstrategi, vil nok bli ståande som eit dei største feilgrepa i presidenttida hans. Det kan vise seg å gå som med president Lyndon B. Johson og Vietnam-krigen på 60-talet, for både i USA, Noreg og i andre NATO-land som Storbritannia, Canada og Tyskland vil dei fleste hente soldatane heim igjen.

Den afghanske kvinnelege politikaren Malalai Joya ser det slik:

"Instead of hope and change, in foreign policy Obama is delivering more of the same. But I still have hope because, as our history teaches, the people of Afghanistan will never accept occupation."

Som Glenn Greenwald skriv, er det no over og ut for dei "liberale haukane" si grunngjeving for krigen, som nok iallfall her til lands er den vanlegaste:

"Independent of motive, it is also quite unlikely that helping Afghans will be the unintended result of our ongoing war there. Just as was true in Iraq -- where we bribed and befriended religious extremists and others we spent years demonizing as "Terrorists," and now protect a government that is extremely oppressive to women, Christians and gays, and brutally violative of human rights in general -- we will do whatever benefits us and serves our interests in Afghanistan, even if that means empowering brutal, oppressive and misogynistic fanatics as long as they are willing to carry out our geopolitical directives. Many of the warlords and other local religious extremists on whom we're already relying and will now use even more are hardly distinguishable from the Taliban on human rights issues. We're not there on a charity mission but are there to advance what we think are our interests. That's why some of the most oppressive governments in the Middle East will continue to be our most stalwart allies."

Òg for den andre, og opphavlege, grunngjevinga om at krigen er naudsynt for å hindre Al-Qaida og likande terroristar i å slå til att, er ei opptrapping av okkupasjonen feil medisin:

"The current nation-building quagmire of Afghanistan is just fomenting more militancy and jihad and does not need to be escalated; deep down, Obama knows it. Rather than squandering more U.S. blood and treasure, the president should have concentrated on neutralizing al-Qaeda and dissuading the inevitable Taliban government in Afghanistan from harboring the group."

Den konservative amerikanske militærhistorikaren Andrew J. Bacevich oppsummerer det best:

"Rather than trying to salvage Bush's policy in Afghanistan, the president should show real courage and just pull the plug."