“War fever” in the U.S. might be subsiding, but is “Empire Fever”? Juan Cole, Middle East expert writes:
US Public Backs Obama, Wants out of Afghanistan
June 30 — 79% of Americans agree with President Obama’s plan to take a third of US troops out of Afghanistan over the next two years, and 59% think he should withdraw more, and more quickly.
These views do not accord with those of the generals in the Pentagon, who felt that Obama’s timetable is “more aggressive” than they would have liked.
But as Andrew Bacevich argues, war fever in the US is finally subsiding, as the public wakes up to the high costs in lives and treasure of the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars and as a majority has become convinced that occupying those countries militarily brings no particular security benefit to the US.”
So for about $4 trillion dollars, we got “no particular security benefit”. Wonderful. Now can we spend that much money on people who actually need it, for a real benefit? Obama’s withdrawal plan is far too slow, and he’s probably planning it that way so unemployment doesn’t spike once the soldiers come home. There might even be a pipeline involved.
Three soldiers reportedly died in Iraq this morning (June 30th). The news media will no doubt focus on the presidential race/horse race all day. When’s the last time you heard them even talk about Iraq?
More interesting reading here. Wikileaks mirror on Afghanistan here.
We have new artwork by Anthony Freda to announce and also a new artist has joined AntiwarArtists.com.
His most recent work is “Peace Prize” and can be seen here.
