Harkening back; thinking ahead

I think particularly of President Obama’s decision to send more troops
to Afghanistan, a tragic and costly error. It is an error RFK would not
have made, and the quote above, noted in the January issue of Esquire
magazine, reminded me of Kennedy’s anguish over Vietnam, and his
decision to risk his career to get out of that war.

Vietnam was a more conventional war than that going on in Afghanistan,
where there is no country to defeat. We could kill every member of al
Qaeda in Afghanistan and surrounding Pakistan and still have the
terrorist problem we have. These extremists exist all over the world —
killing some of them somewhere only motivates others elsewhere.

As the country spends the lives of its young men and women and the
sparse funds in our public treasury, we cannot deal with fundamental
issues at home — jobs, healthcare, environment, education. We are
bankrupting ourselves for the benefit of questionable geopolitical
partners.

President Obama is so smart, I wonder how he cannot see this. I fear he
is unwilling to take on the existing institutions, CIA and military,
which exist on these bellicose misadventures. That was a risk RFK took,
and he is remembered respectfully for his strength and independence for
having done so. That kind of tough independence is the “change” I
thought candidate Obama promised.

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