Friday, October 16, 2009

Sigh. The "Domino" Effect?

Retired Major General Lewis MacKenzie has some advice on Afghanistan. "Don't leave, because the commies ... er, the Taliban will spread."

They'll take over Pakistan, apparently, and seize the nuclear arsenal. This would cause the whole word to explode, starting with India and spreading to Russia and China.

You'll have to pardon me if don't jump at this. This was the same crap they peddled in Vietnam and all that did was get a lot of people killed. The Taliban were - globally speaking - harmless religious idiots who mostly tortured their own people (especially their women). Much to everyone's surprise, bombing the country did not improve this situation. The Taliban are not Al-qaeda and, as MacKenzie admits, would not welcome Al-qaeda back.

MacKenzie's major argument is that the Taliban would be frighteningly unstable at the helm of Pakistan's nuclear arsenal. While I'm sure that it is frightening, it might do us well to remember this quote from guy who was in charge of the world's largest nuclear arsenal for eight years running:
“Gog and Magog are at work in the Middle East…. The biblical prophecies are being fulfilled…. This confrontation is willed by God, who wants to use this conflict to erase his people’s enemies before a New Age begins.”

Yeah, that was Bush.

So even the craziest religious fanatics, in charge of the world's largest supply of nukes, don't use them. Even assuming the Taliban could get hold of Pakistan's nukes, which is a lot of assuming, there's no reason to assume they'd be stupider or more fanatical than George Bush was.

Sorry, General, I'm not buying it.

We went in to Afghanistan to secure a natural gas and oil pipeline, despite the lies told to the soldiers and the citizens of Canada. We're staying there to continue to secure that pipeline, despite the new, deceptive rationale you're peddling.

Bring our soldiers home, now, and stop trying to deceive us.

Recommend this PostProgressive Bloggers