When the Dead Have No Say

punditman says...In today's Toronto Star, army groupie, Rosie Dimanno, who, by recollection, never met a military intervention she didn't applaud, paints a fairly rosy picture of the new Canadian/US/NATO strategy in Afghanistan. The article outlines the admitted problems with the previous undermanned strategy, but now that the Yanks have landed in big numbers, we are led to believe that things are looking up! It's all thanks to a new "...strategic shift ordered by U.S. Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the new commander of all NATO forces in Afghanistan, which puts the emphasis on populated areas in order to separate the Taliban from the people." Just train up those Afghan army units, and stability is on the way.

Sure, in the year 2525.

Unfortunately, with their whack-a-mole strategy, the Yanks have proven—from Vietnam to Iraq—to be piss-poor imperialists. What makes any rational observer think they will somehow get it right in Afghanistan of all places—graveyard of empires? The US and NATO can neither win nor lose in Afghanistan. Is endless war something to cheer about? Don't ask the dead.

by Norman Solomon
www.antiwar.com

Official Washington is buzzing about "metrics." Can the war in Afghanistan be successful?

Don’t ask the dead.

Days ago, under the headline "White House Struggles to Gauge Afghan Success," a New York Times story made a splash. "As the American military comes to full strength in the Afghan buildup, the Obama administration is struggling to come up with a long-promised plan to measure whether the war is being won."

Don’t ask the dead. They don’t count.

The Times article went on: "Those ‘metrics’ of success, demanded by Congress and eagerly awaited by the military, are seen as crucial if the president is to convince Capitol Hill and the country that his revamped strategy is working."

Don’t ask the dead. They won’t have a say.

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