Letter to Cap Times Dec. 24, 2010

Dan A. Goldstein Posted: Thursday, December 24, 2009 5:00 am

Dear Editor: I suppose there is one silver lining to President Barack Obama’s recent escalation in Afghanistan: If he limits the troop increase to a mere 30,000, it seems like an indication that he does not intend to occupy that tortured land indefinitely.
If Obama and the Pentagon want to stay forever, they’re going to have to “seek a wider war,” in the style of Lyndon Baines Johnson. If this is truly a case of “perpetual war for perpetual peace,” the commander in chief will have to increase way beyond 120,000 troops, beyond 180,000 troops -- even beyond 550,000 troops, Nixon’s 1969 peak number in South Vietnam. Maybe Obama can subdue Afghan resistance altogether -- with a minimum 700,000 American soldiers. Stay tuned to see how this disaster unfolds, regardless of how great “our ultimate commitment” turns out to be.
This war will only end when the American people refuse to allow themselves to be hoodwinked by pundits, politicians, generals and contractors who expertly manipulate the ignorant and vulnerable. Peace will require the overwhelming majority of people to become vastly more educated, more aware, more skeptical and more critical than they are now.
Dan A. Goldstein