Obama's War, 2009 -

On January 20, 2009, a potentially pivotal point was reached by the American people as they legally handed over the command of their military forces to a newly elected President.   Three days earlier Carlo Robinson and Ezra Dawson awoke to the routine of their day at the end of which each had taken their last breath; their bodies struggled but succumbed to the damage caused by bullets and shards of metal.

Carlo and Ezra were not gang members in Los Angeles or Chicago, they were not fallen prey to the inane turf battles and egotistical machinations of young men.   More insanely, they were dressed in the colors of a much larger gang, naive pawns in the politics and egotistical machinations of old men.

Carlo Robinson, age 33, and Ezra Dawson, 31, arose to their last morning, ever, in Afghanistan, likely a place they'd never heard of only a few years before.   Their families, friends and communities, no doubt, made the best of their losses, taking comfort in the nominal and automatic accolades given to those who perish in the colors of the American gang, no matter the reason.

Occurring when they did, their deaths should have stood as an important break line in America's foreign interventionist policy, ending a period of gross abuse of power by the nation's chief executive of the previous eight years.  Had I been handed the reigns of our military might, I'd have only regretted that I'd not had it sooner so that I could have brought Staff Sargent Robinson and Specialist Dawson home alive.  

It is frustrating writing here on the tragedy of America's indulgence in Afghanistan.  For me it is so blatantly obvious, that it begs the question, 'What is to be gained by pointing it out?'   If there are those who cannot synthesize the facts, which they can well see, to reveal reality, what more can be said to present it to them?

It is understandable that America felt compelled to perform a police action on foreign soil, but staying to police the neighborhood afterward or to supply the foreign government with an army, which they themselves haven't the support to assemble, makes America's role in Vietnam look like an intellectual masterpiece. 

Since November of 2001, after the bases of al-Qaeda were destroyed and its members scattered, Afghanistan has been a war about America's internal politics.   As there was no one to make a formal surrender, there was no 'V-Day' celebration to be had, thus the egos of America's testosterone laden population had not been fully satisfied and its politically insecure leaders find it safer to continue the combat until there is some point at which victory can be declared.  Such is the predicament in which a politically insecure Barack Obama finds himself.

We are bereft of wise and courageous leadership, for which we are, each day, destined to fill another body bag and build another coffin and fold up another flag, all while waiting for that V-Day which will never come.   In perhaps five years, during his final term as President, maybe Obama will decide enough is enough.   We will leave Afghanistan and the Afghans will become whatever their collective will produces, our presence having made zero difference.   Only the politicians and the war industrialists will have benefited.