So, Mr. Robinson, here’s the big question.  You want us
to leave Afghanistan.  Are you willing to vote against
your hero Obama to make it happen?  Because Obama seems
dedicated to keeping us there.  Thus, the only way to
get us out in the next 5 years is to get Obama out of
the White House. 

So, is this just hot air?  Or, do you really think we
need to leave so strongly that you’ll do something
about it in the next elections?

Thank you gerard

I went to the sites and recognized several notables that I agree with and some I don’t know.  I will do some visiting and see what happens.

I believe that the great majority of the grief of this world is brought about by people behind the scenes who run the Governments.  Especially demonic are those who incite and promote wars as a profit garden.

That people die to fatten bank accounts is the bane of humanity.  These people who instigate death for dollars need to be brought before a court of their victims and be sentenced to all manner of vile punishments.

Any who desire to lead a life of crime against humanity can be made to think seriously about the consequences if they know for a fact how their endeavor will ultimately end.

It certainly would ultimately diminish the suffering of the common people if the the citizens of Earth would prove this justice to the would be despots.

You live by the sword and you have sentenced yourself to die by the sword - and quickly - that is the key.

Two organizations working hard currently for change could use your support, which would probably do a lot more good in the world than writing comments on Truthdig:

Campaign for Peace and Democracy

National Religious Campaign Against Torture

Look them up online by name and add your voice—and maybe a financial contribution, or offer to make some phone calls. And don’t tell me it doesn’t do any good because that’s the voice of defeat and what we need is courage to stand up for what we know is right, and join others.  Doing something is a lot better than doing nothing.

“SPIN”

A wonderful tool of the deceivers.

THX is correct, the Taliban just about eliminated the production of Poppies to make Opium.  And today one of the “Speaking Points” about Al-Qaeda is that they are manufacturing Opium at levels greater than they were before the Taliban shut them down.  And they are taking this “Drug” money and financing their “Terrorist” activities.  That is the U S Military and War Industry line.

I wouldn’t be surprised to find out that some U S Friendly group is really running the Drug network, this side of the Poppy fields.

One of the reasons for the Taliban/Warlord war was that the Taliban was eradicating the Poppy fields.

And when the U S joined the Warlords against the Taliban, there was no benevolent feeling for the people of Afghanistan, there never has been.

By the way, has everyone forgotten that the Taliban offered to give Bin Laden up for trial by Afghans, but the U S wouldn’t go for that, because we wanted a Profit Stream for the War Industry.

The Invasion by the Soviets was even brought about by clandestine activity of the U S.

For those who have forgotten, the USSR wanted to build a pipeline across Afghanistan to the Gulf.

U S International Oil Companies wanted to be the owners of that pipeline so to stifle the Russian Oil expansion( There is more Oil in Russia than there is in Saudi Arabia), in other words they didn’t want the competition, so the U S bought off the Afghan Government and got them to change their mind.  So the USSR decided to invade and overthrow the now American Puppet Government and install their own Puppet Government.

Friends and Neighbors, this is what your sons and daughters died for in that God Forsaken land - to fatten the bank accounts of Big Oil and the War Industry.

Nothing more-Nothing less.

We should have never been there, we should get out of there beginning right now, and finally we should ask the Afghan people for their forgiveness for what we have done to them.

Robespierre:

“ ‘We wanted to install a new government that answers to its constituents at the polls, and we did.’ HUH?”

Well, yes, Robinson, an uneducated piece of sleaze, reproduces almost word for word speeches by Goebbels. It figures.

When I said that Obama can steal lithium from Muslims, I should have said ‘better
if the Obama administration can weasel it out of Afghanistan.’

Obama doesn’t want to have to beg for lithium from Bolivia. Better to steal it from
Muslims.

It’s nice to see that even Eugene Robinson experiences occasional moments of clarity.

He should try thinking independently more often, and spend less time making excuses for his spineless hero, Barack Obama.

James M. Martin, June 10 at 5:46 pm Link to this
comment
...cultivate enough poppy to get the world stoned for
the rest of history…
===========================
Unfortunately, that is factually incorrect; the
Taliban effectively eliminated poppy cultivation in
Afghanistan.
Not 100% (impossible) but 90+%.
As to leaving: It’s not a matter of “if”, but a
matter of when.
IMO, there’s no time like the present…

I agree with Mr. Robinson.  Pack up our troops and bring them home.  Afghanistan got along hundreds of years without us. They can do it again.

The 10 Billion per month could be used to start rebuilding our own infrastructure, highways, schools, etc.  Pack up and leave just like we did in Vietnam, except do it before we murder 58,000 of our troops and heaven knows how many Afghan people.

In principle, I agree with you.  But you know as well as anyone that the moment we leave, the Taliban will return, place Afghani women in bondage, blowing up Buddhist religious pilgrimage shrines, cultivate enough poppy to get the world stoned for the rest of history, and join forces with al Qaeda in terrorist activities.  I should think your point would be, it’s all going to happen anyway.  You may be right.

Hello professor Layne,

We believe we have potentially serious problems involving ambassador Ryan Crocker, national security and the liberal arts educated.

We read

He will commence as the Dean of Texas A&M University’s George Bush School of Government and Public Service in January 2010.
Crocker was likely involved in inciting Saddam Hussein to attack Iran in 1980.

If true, then this appears to be a felony violation of 18 USC § 1091(c).

There is no statute of limitations for such a crime.

Crocker apparently was in Baghdad at the time the Iraq/Iran war started.

He completed the 20-month program at the Foreign Service Institutes Arabic School in Tunis in June 1978. Crocker was then assigned as chief of the economic-commercial section at the U.S. Interests Section in Baghdad, Iraq. Crocker served in Beirut, Lebanon as chief of the political section from 1981 to 1984; while there, he survived the 1983 United States Embassy bombing.
Crocker’s bio.

We attempted to put pressure on Whitman College which graduated Crocker with an English major in 1971 to encourage Crocker to come clean about the Iraq/Iran war got started so that these unfortunate matters could be peacefully settled.

http://home.comcast.net/~bpayne37/whitman59/bushschool/bushschool.htm#layne

No wonder they want to cut Medicare and Social Security.  We need 10 billion
dollars a month to keep troops in Afghanistan.  This is madness.  We are
rebuilding Afghanistan while our own country falls into bankruptcy.  Policing the
mideast is a futile quest.  Those terrorists aren’t nationalistic—they don’t care
which country they operate from, they are committed to an ideology first of all.
Webb is right.

This is another black mark against Obama who presented himself as an opposer of
the Iraq War, misleading voters into thinking that he was not a hawk but a peace
seeker.  But you surround yourself with Bush’s staff, what result can you expect? 
Why was he given the Nobel Peace Prize?

BlogDog & Robespierre hit this one right on the head:  These wars are never supposed to end.  They provide huge profits to the war-mongers, a winning formula for crushing domestic dissent, a useful means to rob the citizens of their wealth. The wars make the rape of Asia possible, allow the corporations to profit from opium, gas, oil, and an endless stream of taxpayer subsidies in a market they would not be able to compete in, much left survive, if they were not on the public dole. The “enemies” of the US are, to quote Dr. Michael Parenti:

“...the people, the people at home and the people abroad. Their enemies are anybody who wants more social justice, anybody who wants to use the surplus value of society for social needs rather than for individual class greed, that’s their enemy.”

“Four sorrows ... are certain to be visited on the United States. Their cumulative effect guarantees that the U.S. will cease to resemble the country outlined in the Constitution of 1787. First, there will be a state of perpetual war, leading to more terrorism against Americans wherever they may be and a spreading reliance on nuclear weapons among smaller nations as they try to ward off the imperial juggernaut. Second is a loss of democracy and Constitutional rights as the presidency eclipses Congress and is itself transformed from a co-equal ‘executive branch’ of government into a military junta. Third is the replacement of truth by propaganda, disinformation, and the glorification of war, power, and the military legions. Lastly, there is bankruptcy, as the United States pours its economic resources into ever more grandiose military projects and shortchanges the education, health, and safety of its citizens.”
(Chalmers Johnson)

Has the president lost control of his generals
(Harper’s, May 2011.) Generals, like Petraeus, have
taken it upon themselves to usurp strategic policy
which belongs, according to the Constitution, in the
realm of the civilian commander in chief and his
advisers.

Unless and until Obama puts the military in its place
- the province of the armed forces being military
tactics and only military tactics, the military will
continue to control strategic policy and we will stay
in Afghanistan and Iraq.

And if the military complains?  Pull a Truman and
fire the sons-of-bitches.

Declare Victory—and Leave
Eugene must be a young man; tried that 40 years ago.
Didn’t work then and our government sure as heck won’t
buy it today!
It doesn’t fit their image.
Team America; F*&k Yeah!

most of those 100k soldiers will redeploy to another theatre, either as re-ups or
mercenaries, that is if they want a job of any sort - the global war of terror is
expanding on schedule; failing states as planned - basic analytical error of most
pundits: the premise of the argument - these wars are intended to better no one
except financiers; essentially fail all self-determinant societies - oligarchs’ time-
honored enemies

But where are these 100,000 returning soldiers going to get jobs?

“We wanted to install a new government that answers to its constituents at the polls, and we did.” HUH? Everyone knows the Afghan elections were rigged, the government is run by US-backed warlords and the only people living well are Kabul’s elite. The US should leave because nothing has come out of this war except for destruction, death and misery, of course it’s been a real boon for contractors, mercenaries and weapons makers.

Eugene is just another watered down hack. I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again, Eugene go f—k yourself.