IBG and YBG

At this critical point in my lifetime, I know that I have already lived far longer than I can ever expect to live into the future. Death is inevitable now, and it's a lot closer than I would like it to be. As Woody Allen once observed, and I paraphrase, he understands about his own death and even respects it; he just doesn't want to be there when it happens. That pretty much sums it up for me too.

Many of the things that are going on in this effed-up world right now are not going to come to resolution in my lifetime, nor yours, I suspect, unless you are extremely young. I doubt the very young are reading this blog (it could happen, I suppose, but it's unlikely). Thus, IBG and YBG. I'll be gone and you'll be gone. When we are gone, nothing that is happening or evolving right now, for good or evil, will matter to us.

One of the things not resolved, if even resolvable, is the situation in Afghanistan. Critics of Obama claim he is "dithering" and putting our troops at risk while taking too long to make a decision about whether to send an additional 40,000 (or whatever number) troops to F'd-ghanistan. The hawks, the sleaze-bags that make their obscene fortunes in the military-industrial complex, want to perpetuate this futile war and reap more profit from nation-building or whatever other opportunities arise when military, civilian, and mercenary elements are called upon to occupy a foreign territory. War is good business. The stock market likes war as much as it likes unemployment. Billions of dollars are spent. We don't even have a clue how many trillions of dollars will have been wasted between Iraq, Afghanistan, and now Pakistan. In other times, in other hands, those billions and trillions could have set this country on a path of positivity, social justice, and meaningful, livable employment for all. But no. We have "national security" issues to protect. We have to root out al-Qaeda (if that were even possible). We have to defeat the Taliban (it will never happen).

For the many reasons that the warmongers and hawks wish to perpetuate this so-called war in Afghanistan (and Iraq), we now need to re-institute the draft. Our all-volunteer military has done more than its share. The only way to keep the supply of soldiers and other personnel going throughout what could end up to be another decade in the Middle East is to draft everybody into the military. Young, middle-aged, old...they all need to go there and "serve their country." Men, women, teenagers...they all need to take a turn. Politicians, their sons and daughters, CEOs, bankers, Wall Street financiers, George W. Bush, Barack Obama, Senators, Representatives, their children, their wives, their mothers...they all need to be drafted and spend a rotation in Iraq, Afghanistan, and (soon) Pakistan and Iran. Send everybody over there in the next 5-10 years. That includes Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Bill O'Reilly, Laura Ingraham, Ann Coulter, and the whole bunch of right-wing batshit-crazy lunatics on FOX. No deferrals, not even for Dick Cheney. Hell, I'll go. I'll go in a wheelchair. If it's so goddamned important that we send another 40,000 soldiers there to die in big numbers, let's all go. Not one death will have been worth it in the end. BRING BACK THE DRAFT SO WE ALL HAVE THE OPPORTUNITY TO SERVE IRRESPECTIVE OF WEALTH OR AGE OR ABILITY.

Are we so deluded that we think we will ever defeat the Taliban? Or al-Qaeda? And now, what's the difference between them? There used to be a discernible difference between them, but over the past 8 long years we've already been in F'd-ghanistan, the Taliban and al-Qaeda have chained themselves to each other in a death spiral. They are aligned. They don't care who dies. Innocent women and children, civilians, people just trying to live, as hard as that is over there (and increasingly here now)...they don't care. They are an enemy best sealed off and ignored. We can't do that while we are actively engaged in that part of the world unless we simply mathematically outnumber them. If we send the entire population of America to F'd-ghanistan, would it be enough to defeat them? Let's try it. Let's just shut down this country and go there. All of us. Last one out, turn off the lights. No sense having this country all lit up wasting energy while we are all gone.

Who wants to be the next on the plane? I don't see the warmongers in the "media" or elsewhere volunteering for duty. Are we going to turn our backs to the television when Obama sends 40,000 more? Or 20,000 more? Does it matter how many? Many more of these soldiers will be killed. For what? Do we know?

Here's another idea. Instead of the draft, let's just bring everybody home. Now. Let's just friggin' mind our own business for a change. We have plenty of "business" to mind at the moment. I am sick of the death panels in the Middle East and America. Instead of pulling the plug on Gramma, let's send her to Afghanistan where at least her death will have made the cable news.