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Afghan War Worse Than We Thought? How Is That Possible?

Gen. Stanley McChrystal’s expose in Rolling Stone already demonstrated that the war effort in Afghanistan is going much worse than we had imagined. Now the release of 90,000 classified US government documents provide greater context to our fears.

These documents, allegedly leaked by US army intelligence analyst, Spc. Bradley Manning to Wikileaks.org, emphasize that elements within the government of our “ally” Pakistan may be providing training to the Taliban, helping them to attack US troops, that civilian deaths have been underreported, that the US military’s unmanned drone program is largely a failure, and friendly fire deaths among NATO forces and among Afghan security forces are epidemic.

Aside from key efforts within the Democratic Party by politically connected activists like the progressives at Democrats.com, the antiwar left has been nearly silent, choosing to give a pass to the Obama administration and the Democratically led Congress. How long can this last? We have to pressure Congress and the administration to change course.

The war in Afghanistan is unwinnable, and that won’t change during the Obama administration nor the administration afterward. However, the US position in Afghanistan is extremely complex, and our complete and immediate withdrawal might cause the broader region to descend into chaos.

It is obvious that the war effort cannot continue the way it has. Military minds say that Obama’s escalation and counter insurgency strategy isn’t working.  So what is the answer? And how many billions must be spent and how many lives must be lost while our corrupt, unethical, inept politicians engage in partisan bickering instead of working to come up with real solutions?

© Nadir Omowale