It's Time to Bring ALL of the Troops Home Now

We invaded Afghanistan more than seven years ago. We have not broken the back of Al Qaeda or the Taliban. We have not captured or killed Osama bin Laden. We don’t even have an escalation strategy, much less an exit strategy. An honest assessment of the situation, taking into account the woefully corrupt and ineffective Afghan government led by the hapless Hamid Karzai, would lead inexorably to such terms as fiasco and quagmire.

Yet, instead of cutting our losses, we appear to be doubling down.

Those are the words of Bob Herbert in the NYT this morning. I couldn't have said it any more clear;ly than Mr. Herbert. It is way past time to realize that we are not the policemen of the world.

When did the United States adopt the world-policeman concept? Was it Korea in the early 50's or Vietnam in the late 50's? By the way, what was our 'national interest' in that neck of the woods anyhow? Must have been that 'evil empire' of which Reagan spoke. Lots of 'evil' identified by our presidents. Recall the trifecta axes of evil identified by Bush. Cuba used to be evil, but apparently it has evaporated, although not completely. After all, they are communists! That word says it all!

Bush senior saw evil as well. He spoke Saddam Hussein's name evily. Naturally we had to stop that evil from attacking its neighbor, the good guys in Kuwait. Then there was that other evil guy in our own backyard- Manuel Noriega. We busted his ass so that he couldn't spread evil around 'our' canal.

Now that I think of it, look at all of those evil men in our hemisphere that we had to exterminate for the good of [ ] fill in the proper word. Pinochet, Stroessner, Videla, Branco, Batista, Duvalier, Trujillo, Somozato mention but a few. OH, wait! Wrong list. These guys were OUR friendly dictators. Sorry. Sometimes I get confused; I ought to have some sort of score card in front of me as I type-GOOD DICTATORS/BAD DICTATIORS.

Sometimes, in fact, the same 'dictator' slides from one column to the other as quick as lightening. Didn't Saddam Hussein move from the left to the right column overnight?

It would funny if this were a sitcom, but, as it conserns the blood of our military, the money from our treasury, and tens of millions of innocent civilians, it becomes a dark tragedy.