The entire article was a nice wrap, I thought.KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — When U.S. forces and their Afghan allies rode into Kabul in November 2001 they were greeted as liberators. But after 17 years of war, the Taliban have retaken half the country, security is worse than it’s ever been, and many Afghans place the blame squarely on the Americans.
The United States has lost more than 2,400 soldiers in its longest war, and has spent more than $900 billion on everything from military operations to the construction of roads, bridges and power plants. Three U.S. presidents have pledged to bring peace to Afghanistan, either by adding or withdrawing troops, by engaging the Taliban or shunning them. Last year, the U.S. dropped the “mother of all bombs” on a cave complex.
None of it has worked. After years of frustration, Afghanistan is rife with conspiracy theories, including the idea that Americans didn’t stumble into a forever war, but planned one all along....
And, perhaps as a fitting PS, there was this AP article about training Ukrainian children:
KIEV, Ukraine (AP) — The campers, some clad in combat fatigues, carefully aim their assault rifles. Their instructor offers advice: Don’t think of your target as a human being. [emphasis added]. So when these boys and girls shoot, they will shoot to kill.
Most are in their teens, but some are as young as 8 years old.
Orwell's book, Nineteen Eighty-Four, is discussed in The Theory and Practice of Oligarchical Collectivism, by Emmanuel Goldstein.
ReplyDeleteGoldstein's book explains that "the purpose of the unwinnable, perpetual war is to consume human labour and commodities so that the economy of a superstate cannot support economic equality, with a high standard of life for every citizen. By using up most of the produced objects like boots and rations, the proles are kept poor and uneducated and will neither realize what the government is doing nor rebel."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nineteen_Eighty-Four#The_War
The war being discussed was based on a scale akin to WWII fought between three balanced powers with shifting alliances, and always fought on neutral ground. But until the other major powers join in, a war on terror in Afghanistan and or anywhere but here will just have to do.