A military that forgets its place and decides that it should make the decisions on where to fight comes too close to a dictatorship to protect a democracy. There are far too many countries run by Generalissimos, Supreme Commanders and Sergeants, countries whose people have been disappeared, tortured and imprisoned because they don’t share the enlightened vision of their military.

The recent history of the United States illustrates just how important it is that the civilian authority are in charge.

During the Cuban missile crisis of October 1962, the top military were aghast at Kennedy’s unwillingness to risk war with the Soviet Union by invading Cuba. After Kennedy and Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev found a way to stop at the brink of nuclear catastrophe, both saw more clearly than ever a mutual interest in preventing another such occurrence. This led to a sustained back channel dialog from which the JCS were excluded, and of which they were highly distrustful.

“When all that you have is a hammer, then everything looks like a nail.” The military approach to conflict is to effect a military response, to use the tools of war. However, the defenders are not in charge of the republic. If they were, we would be in a perpetual state of war. The military would be used for more than defense; it would be a tool for expanding the empire. We would be preemptively striking against countries that might, in the future, mean to harm us. As we all know, this is not what the United States is all about. We are a peaceful, freedom-loving people who only attack to defend ourselves and our allies’ interests.

In Iraq, for example, we have fought for seven years and three months to prevent the terrorists from invading the United States. Since the start of the Iraq War, there have indeed been no invasions by the terrorists and so the strategy is working. There have been some foiled terrorist attacks on our soil, but the terrorist on the plane to Detroit and the terrorist in Times Square bungled their attacks because of our presence in Iraq. This is a simple matter of reviewing cause-and-effect, people.

In Afghanistan, we are there for a different reason. We sent our troops there to unseat the Taliban, a truly horrific organization of misogynists. These men find any excuse that they can to kill or disfigure women for violating societal norms that keep women in their place. Women under the Taliban’s government were not allowed to see gynecologists because they would then have had to disrobe before a male that is not their husband. Women were not allowed to be doctors. Girls under the Taliban were not allowed to attend school, to learn to either read or write. Schools for girls were burned with children inside them. Girls on their way to school were splashed with acids to permanently disfigure them, to teach them and the women around them that learning is only for boys and men and that their purpose is solely to bear and raise children for Allah’s glory. The Taliban clearly needed to be ousted.

We have also been in Afghanistan for other reasons. We have been there to assist in creating a democracy, a western-style democracy to restore Afghanistan’s rich parliamentary history. We removed the Taliban, but now what? The Afghanistan government is not in control of their country seven years later. Our military is asked to keep things in order until a freedom-respecting government is in place and in control. And our leaders do not know what it will take to achieve such a goal.

I think it is clear that a military mission in Afghanistan is not able to strive for much more than temporary truces, respites that will only last as long as our military is there being asked to surge and strategize indefinitely. How can our generals be asked to do what no other world power has ever been able to do, how can our military subdue Afghanistan? We can’t and we shouldn’t expect them to do so.

General McChrystal has a big mouth. He and his drinking buddies openly mocked the civilian leadership (their bosses) to a reporter for Rolling Stone Magazine. But that is not the problem. It is the reason that McChrystal’s resignation has been accepted by President Obama, but it is not what he is truly guilty for doing. His cadre told the truth about Afghanistan:

McChrystal’s closest advisors speak openly in the article that they do not believe the war in Afghanistan is winnable. Here is how McChrystal’s Chief of Operations told Rolling Stone‘s Michael Hastings that the war in Afghanistan is going to end: “‘It’s not going to look like a win, smell like a win or taste like a win’ said Major General Bill Mayville, ‘This is going to end in an argument.’”

As Hastings writes: “So far, counterinsurgency has succeeded only in creating a never-ending demand for the primary product supplied by the military: perpetual war.” And that is what key figures in the military have in mind, notwithstanding the president’s commitment to begin withdrawing US troops in July of next year. According to a senior military official in Kabul: “There is a possibility that we could ask for another surge of US forces next summer if we see success here.”

Another surge? Without a clear exit strategy from Afghanistan – and 96 Members of Congress are demanding one by co-sponsoring legislation sponsored by Jim McGovern in the House – senior military leaders are conducting operations in Afghanistan as if escalation, not withdrawal, could very well be in the cards. And why not? McChrystal backed the administration down before, why not again?

This makes a vet with head trauma feel better

Obama fired McChrystal and people applaud, and say that Petraeus is the great choice to replace him in Afghanistan, to turn things around and get some victory going out there in that quagmire that is starting to look increasingly like Vietnam.  It is an unwinnable war, which is something that the military likes because they get to keep on fighting and it keeps them from getting bored. The patriots like it because it gives them more reason to cheer on the troops and put yellow ribbon magnets and stickers on their cars.

We aren’t supposed to allow the military to dictate policy.  After eight years of a Bush/Cheney administration that was more than happy to drop bombs and drag our allies into war to protect us from people who “hate us for our freedom,” we had expected a president who would work towards ending our involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan and we are not seeing that happen. Instead we are seeing renewed calls for more, more, more money and troops to fight a war with no clear objective.

I am not a fan of McChrystal by any means.  He thought he was the tail that could wag the dog, to tell the President how high to jump. I do think that he is not in charge any more in Afghanistan because he and his drinking buddies spilled the beans about an unwinnable war.

You talk a mite too much, General.

Cheney’s speech ignored some inconvenient truths

Former Vice President Dick Cheney’s defense Thursday of the Bush administration’s policies for interrogating suspected terrorists contained omissions, exaggerations and misstatements.

In his address to the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative policy organization in Washington, Cheney said that the techniques the Bush administration approved, including waterboarding — simulated drowning that’s considered a form of torture — forced nakedness and sleep deprivation, were “legal” and produced information that “prevented the violent death of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of innocent people.”
McClatchy

New Afghan Force Joins Fight Against Taliban

In central Afghanistan, the latest graduates of a new security program targeting the Taliban assumed their duties Thursday on the outskirts of Kabul.

The “Guardians,” as the Afghan force is called by its U.S. Special Forces mentors, are part of the pilot Afghan Public Protection Program that American and Afghan officials hope to re-create across Afghanistan.

The program is similar to the U.S.-backed “Sons of Iraq” movement that turned local tribesmen against al-Qaida in Iraq.
npr

Obama administration sides with Bush officials against outed CIA agent

The Obama administration has decided to oppose the reinstatement of a civil lawsuit filed by outed CIA officer Valerie Plame Wilson.

The move represents the first public position by the administration on the issue. Obama’s position mirrors that of President George W. Bush, whose aides found themselves in the cross-fire after the agent, Plame Wilson, was outed by conservative columnist Robert Novak.
The Raw Story

Clinton to Extend Benefits to Gay Partners

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton will soon announce that the partners of gay U.S. diplomats are eligible for many benefits currently denied them and allowed to spouses of heterosexual diplomats, according to lawmakers and others advocating the change.

The Bush administration had resisted efforts to treat same-sex partners the same as spouses. Thus those partners were denied a wide array of benefits, such as paid travel to and from overseas posts, shipments of household effects, visas and diplomatic passports, emergency travel to visit ill or injured partners, and evacuation in case of a security emergency or medical necessity.
Washington Post

White House Czar Calls for End to ‘War on Drugs’

The Obama administration’s new drug czar says he wants to banish the idea that the U.S. is fighting “a war on drugs,” a move that would underscore a shift favoring treatment over incarceration in trying to reduce illicit drug use.

In his first interview since being confirmed to head the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, Gil Kerlikowske said Wednesday the bellicose analogy was a barrier to dealing with the nation’s drug issues.

Wall Street Journal

Lawmaker: CIA Already Being Probed For Misleading Congress

As they go after Nancy Pelosi over those CIA briefings, Republicans have been putting the burden of proof on the Speaker, suggesting that it’s all but unheard of for the CIA to mislead others in government. But in fact, the agency is currently being probed for doing exactly that on a different issue — and the effort was initiated by one of Pelosi’s fiercest critics on the torture briefings kerfuffle.

TPM Muckraker

Sea-Based Missile Defense Moves Forward

Riki Ellison, Chairman and Founder of the Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance, MDAA, told the MDAA membership last week of the establishment of a new U.S. Navy command that will support our nation’s missile defense program, and he said it is a sign of support for sea-based missile defense by President Barack Obama’s Administration.

Space War

US burns Bibles in Afghanistan row

The US army in Afghanistan has burned Bibles printed in local languages, a US colonel in Afghanistan has said, amid concerns they could have been used to try to convert Afghans.

Al Jazeera

House passes measure expanding gun rights

Gun rights advocates found an unlikely ally in the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives on Wednesday as lawmakers passed a measure allowing concealed, loaded firearms to be carried in national parks.

CNN

Almost half of Boston teens surveyed blame Rihanna for Chris Brown attack

This is not the kind of news I like to hear on a Monday morning. (Or I guess any morning for that matter.)

Feministing

KLo: Victim-blaming is feminists’ fault

For serious. I know I’m late on this one, but I just had to write something. (And no, it’s not because the article is from the same woman who called me a “bridezilla” for daring to question wedding culture.)

Feministing

Sarah Haskins in Target Women: Snapped

There’s a special time in every woman’s life when she snaps and murders someone. The Oxygen Network helps you prepare for it on their real-life crime show, ‘Snapped.’

Current

The Juárez Murders

Sexism, corporate greed, and drug trafficking make Juárez a deadly town for Mexico’s women. Hundreds are dead, but the killers remain free.

Amnesty International USA

Afghan leader accused of bid to ‘legalise rape’

Afghanistan’s President, Hamid Karzai, has signed a law which “legalises” rape, women’s groups and the United Nations warn. Critics claim the president helped rush the bill through parliament in a bid to appease Islamic fundamentalists ahead of elections in August.

The Independent

Obama Responds To Afghan Law That Legalizes Rape: ‘I Think This Law Is Abhorrent’

At a news conference in Strasbourg, France, this morning, President Obama discussed NATO efforts in Afghanistan and secured the commitment of NATO allies to send 5,000 more troops to Afghanistan. Fox News’ Major Garrett asked Obama what he thinks of a new Afghanistan law that legalizes rape.

Think Progress

Kansas “late-term” abortion doctor acquitted

George Tiller, who U.S. anti-abortion groups consider a prime offender, was found innocent on 19 misdemeanor charges that he violated a state law that only allows late-term abortions if two independent physicians agree the procedure is necessary to save a woman’s life or prevent “substantial and irreversible” harm to “a major bodily function.”

Reuters

Women/Minority Ph.D.s in Science and Engineering

I happened upon a list of figures that display lots of information about who majors in science and engineering (S&E), all available at the NSF page on Women, Minorities, and Persons with Disabilities in Science and Engineering.

Sociological Images

Women Pay The Price For Health Insurance

During the last economic bust, I got laid off and couldn’t afford the monthly COBRA payments for my health insurance. I applied for an individual plan through Blue Cross.

I was 28 at the time and had no health problems. I was thin and athletic. In fact, I’d done a triathlon and biked from San Francisco to Los Angeles twice.

I got a letter from Blue Cross saying I was denied.

MPR

“Boys Fix Things. Girls Need Things Fixed.”

Lordo sent in an image found at Blame it on the Voices that shows pages from what is described as a “1970s children’s book.” They helpfully instruct kids as to what boys and girls are like:

Sociological Images

New women’s soccer league takes world view

The Los Angeles Sol makes its debut today — a new team in a new league in an old sport in a country that has yet to fully embrace the idea of kicking a round ball across a grass field.

We are talking about soccer, specifically women’s soccer, and while the U.S. went delirious over the likes of American stars Mia Hamm, Julie Foudy, Michelle Akers and all the rest of 1999 Women’s World Cup winners, a decade has slipped by since then.

LA Times