Here We Go Again

I was on my final break at work Wednesday evening when I heard part of Joseph Biden’s VP nomination acceptance speech at the Democratic Convention. Parts of his very tough, forceful, address seemed to make some in the audience a little nervous and the response at times was a little tentative. It reminded me of the beginning of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, when Bilbo Baggins opened his birthday party speech to his fellow hobbits with the line, “I don’t know half of you half as well as I should like; and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve.” That made the hobbits a bit nervous, too, with only Gandalf (and Bilbo) “in” on the joke. Well, regarding Biden’s speech, I’m no Gandalf, but I think I’m “in” on it. And bro’, it ain’t no joke.

Biden had a lot of good things to say that I agreed with, but when he got to our policies regarding Iraq, Iran, and Afghanistan, my ears began to perk up a lot. Here is the text of that part of the speech. The italics are mine (for emphasis):

*****

I've been on the ground in Georgia, Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan, and I can tell you in no uncertain terms: this Administration's policy has been an abject failure. America cannot afford four more years of this.

Now, despite being complicit in this catastrophic foreign policy, John McCain says Barack Obama isn't ready to protect our national security. Now, let me ask you: whose judgment should we trust? Should we trust John McCain's judgment when he said only three years ago, "Afghanistan--we don't read about it anymore because it's succeeded"? Or should we trust Barack Obama, who more than a year ago called for sending two additional combat brigades to Afghanistan?

The fact is, al-Qaida and the Taliban--the people who actually attacked us on 9/11--have regrouped in those mountains between Afghanistan and Pakistan and are plotting new attacks. And the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff echoed Barack's call for more troops.

John McCain was wrong. Barack Obama was right.

Should we trust John McCain's judgment when he rejected talking with Iran and then asked: What is there to talk about? Or Barack Obama, who said we must talk and make it clear to Iran that its conduct must change.

Now, after seven years of denial, even the Bush administration recognizes that we should talk to Iran, because that's the best way to advance our security.

Again, John McCain was wrong. Barack Obama was right.

*****

It sounds like Biden is implying that McCain was wrong at every turn about U.S. policy over there and that Obama actually was right on target all along about what should be done. But consider the following points:

--Biden included the Taliban, the indigenous insurgent (and former nationally-controlling) political-military group in Afghanistan, as being part of those who “actually attacked us on 9/11” when there is no evidence to link them with Al-Qaeda other than that they had supplied sanctuary to that group and had an alliance with them for the expressed purpose of defeating their civil war opponents in Afghanistan. Naturally, when the U.S. invaded Afghanistan after 9/11 and began fighting the Taliban, the Taliban began fighting the U.S. back (there, not here). The Taliban is NOT Al-Qaeda any more than those Sunni chiefs and their insurgent soldiers in Iraq were. Once the U.S. began to negotiate with those chiefs, they cooperated with us to kick out what element of Al-Qaeda that was there.

--Are we talking at all with the Taliban or just using them as a political scapegoat to give the folks back home the feeling that we’re fighting terrorism? They aren’t going anywhere; to borrow McCain’s phraseology, we could be there “100 years” and the Taliban would still be there in some form or another. They represent a legitimately popular political sentiment in that part of the world. That it clashes with our ideas of human rights (particularly in its treatment of women and other religions) only makes the Taliban a safer scapegoat to set up and attack for domestic political consumption.

--Biden then said that we should talk to Iran because “that’s the best way to advance our security.” I agree with that. After all, talking to the Sunni chiefs helped the surge to succeed to the point where violence has greatly subsided in those areas of Iraq. But why not talk in the same way with the Taliban? And try to get them to break with Al-Qaeda?

During last night’s presidential nomination acceptance speech, Barack Obama also lumped the Taliban together with Al-Qaeda. Obama wants to step up the warfare against the Taliban (why?) as though this will lead him to the Al-Qaeda leadership. To me, all this will do will be to make the Taliban grow even closer to and more dependent on Al-Qaeda than it already is, strengthening the influence of that terrorist organization in the area.

It seems to me that U.S. aims in Afghanistan are getting just as muddled as they were in Iraq. I thought we were over there to catch and destroy the terrorists responsible for the 9/11 attacks against us. So what are we doing getting bogged down again fighting a group of people whose overriding gripe against us is that we’re over there fighting them? Sound familiar?

Here we go again!