Afghan War - 8 Years

 

On the 8th anniversary of the start of the Afghan War, several groups got together to chalk the 869 names of the US fallen on the sidewalks around Acacia Park in Colorado Springs. 

The music is Brian Hayden (Guitar, melody) and Mark Lewis (Mandolin, harmonies) singing John Gorka's "Temporary Road".

The artwork is by Corbin Hillam

The U.S. currently has roughly 100,000 troops in Afghanistan. 
They should all come home ASAP since a political problem cannot be solved with a military solution.
Ever.
We can't fix our economy if we continue to allow our military to dominate our budgets.
We can't trim military spending while leaving a huge force in Iraq OR by increasing our military exposure to Afghanistan.
We can't treat the massive wounds we have caused to our own people while subsidizing a massive military budget or occupation on 2 fronts.
Our economy needs a peace dividend NOW.
Troops cannot defeat an ideology.
Tactically, a conventional army is no match for guerrilla forces.
Warfare by unmanned drone has been an unmitigated disaster and immoral crime.
The US and NATO have been trying to impose a national government and ignore or remove provincial leaders, who command strong and sizable local militias and support.
Karzai is a Unocal oil puppet and corrupt despot in a society that has never had and will never have a centralized government.
The recent "election" was completely corrupt.
The Tajik, Uzbek, Hazara, Shia, Pashtuns, Sunnis, Persians, Baluchis, Waziris, etc will NEVER subscribe to the form of American "democracy" the neocons have been dreaming they could force on the populations.
Democracy is NOT an American invention and CANNOT be forced down people's throats with a gun.
Their self-determination is as crucial to them, as ours is to us and ONLY by respecting that, could we ever hope to influence any society.
Starting with the US Cold War-era covert involvement in the Afghan PROXY war against the Soviets, training the mujahadin, using the CIA "asset" of osama bin laden, arming the very militias the US is fighting today, and continuing today, the foreign policy there has been another Vietnam of inheriting a failed imperialist intervention.
We can no more change fundamentalist religious zealots with the military than they could change our own parallel fundamentalists here.