Afghanistan and the Roman Empire

[unhappycamper]

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/03/23-0


Afghanistan and the Roman Empire
by Renee Parsons
Published on Friday, March 23, 2012 by Common Dreams

As Defense Secretary Leon Panetta stepped off the plane in Afghanistan recently, he accurately summed up the evils of war. Arriving to calm Afghani reaction to the massacre of sixteen civilians in their homes by a U.S. soldier, Panetta said that "war is hell." The Secretary went on to predict that these "incidents are going to take place. This is not the first and probably won't be the last."

In other words, as U.S. military tentacles wrap themselves around the world just as the Roman Empire spread its military dominance from Baghdad to Britain, Panetta was serving notice on the American public that the violence and pattern of disturbing behavior on the part of American troops is less than an aberration but represents an endless war culture that may be expected to continue.

Senator John McCain (R-AZ) told Meet the Press host David Gregory last week that the 'Taliban are basically decimated to a larger degree" and that 'we are winning." Unfortunately, there was no followup that if the Taliban are decimated and there are virtually no al Qaeda in Afghanistan, what are we fighting for?

Afghani President Hamid Karzai rejected the latest in a series of U.S. apologies that promised a "full investigation," to hold the perpetrator "fully accountable' and all the usual mea culpas explaining that he was 'at the end of the rope.' The latest setback for the U.S. in Afghanistan came after weeks of drone strikes on civilians and Afghani border guards, the burning of the Koran. urinating on corpses and other 'inadvertent' attacks.



unhappycamper comment: The United States is currently paying $500 million dollars a year for the 'Northern Route' that we must use to get supplies in since we droned Pakistani soldiers: http://www.rferl.org/content/countries_scramble_to_be_natos_exit_route_from_afghan_exit_route/24522872.html

Ka ching