"....Anyone who really thinks the US Is Going to Withdraw from Afghanistan in 2011..."

[amborin]

Five Absurd Things That Simply Can't Happen in Wartime Washington

snip

Here's how Ackerman began his report: "Anyone who thinks the United States is really going to withdraw from Afghanistan in July 2011 needs to come to this giant air base an hour away from Kabul. There's construction everywhere. It's exactly what you wouldn't expect from a transient presence." The old Russian base, long a hub for US military (and imprisonment) activities in that country is now, as he describes it, a giant construction site and its main drag, Disney Drive, a massive traffic pile-up. ("If the Navy could figure out a way to bring a littoral-combat ship to a landlocked country, it would idle on Disney.") Its flight line is packed with planes—"C-17s, Predators, F-16s, F-15s, MC-12 passenger planes"—and Bagram, he concludes, "is starting to feel like a dynamic exurb before the housing bubble burst."

snip

For almost nine years, the US military has been building up Bagram. Now, the Obama administration's response to the Afghan disaster on its hands is—and who, at this late date, could be surprised?—a further build-up. In my childhood, I remember ads for... well, I'm not quite sure what... but they showed scenes of multiple error, including, if I remember rightly, five-legged cows floating through clouds. They were always tagged with a question that went something like: What's wrong with this picture?

As with so much that involves the American way of war, the US national security state, and the vast military and intelligence bureaucracies that go with them, an outsider might well be tempted to ask just that question. As much as Washington insiders may periodically decry or bemoan the results of our war policies and security-state procedures, however, they never ask what's wrong. Not really.


snip

http://motherjones.com/politics/2010/08/american-way-of-war-washington

[frylock]

1. knr

for the true believers

[Greyhound]

2. Another K&R.

[nashville_brook]

3. if you haven't already, see The Green Zone. based on 'Imperial Life in the Emerald City'

there's different factions in all these conflicts (wars, whatever). Green Zone did a great job of showing the disconnect, and it really didn't even delve into the private contractors and their special interest.