War abroad creates excuses to use the state security apparatus at home. War creates profits for well-placed corporations and individuals, transferring wealth via the government from the dwindling middle class to the ruling class. This also comes with the added bonus of depriving the government of funds that might go to programs that would enhance the health and welfare of the rest of us.Compare to Internatioanal ANSWER'S Brian Becker: "Afghanistan and the Logic of Empire."
War creates an outlet for the jobless, allowing for higher levels of unemployment without as much risk of social unrest — and what's left can be more effectively contained by a militarized police force which enjoys broader powers in the context of the government's war policies. Finally, it's clear to those who study the issue that a principle driving force of international terrorism has been hatred and resentment against America — not because of our "freedom," but because how we and our proxies invade, occupy, and brutalize Muslim populations. Continuing war and occupation in Afghanistan thus effectively preserves and enhance the very excuses needed to stay there.
Extended war in Afghanistan serves all the interests of the ruling class and none of the rest of society. It will waste more resources, destroy more lives, increase debt, and reduce the ability of the American economy to ever provide a stable, secure future. Even worse, it will make it easier for the U.S. to move on to the next conflict, maybe Iran or Pakistan, just as being in Afghanistan made it easier to move into Iraq.
It's all about fomenting the revolution. Hating American, opposition to war (and to "racist oppression"), blah, blah gives the communists their raison d'ĂȘtre.
Added: "Obama and Afghanistan : The Permanent War Economy."
Communists may speak out against Afghanistan, but, the majority of authentic Communists and Socialists maintain their own aggressive goals, and it isn’t for peace. Certainly, Marx believed that violence was inevitable. Everybody only wants peace on their own terms. Gandhi and Martin Luther King method of non-violence only works against civilized nations, Britain and U.S., in their case. Obama does apparently realize now that the Taliban and Al Qaeda are truly evil, and cannot be reasoned with – I “hope” he will soon add North Korea and Iran to this awakening.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was at USAF Strategic Air Command Headquarters, during the Viet Nam war, the motto was, “Peace is Our Profession.” The SAC motto now is less ironic, "War is our Profession, Peace is our Product," and more realistic.