October 21, 2010 06:23 PM UTC

Mindset

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• by: JO

Off the radar, at least for the moment, is Afghanistan. I really have no clear picture of what either Colorado candidate for the U.S. Senate thinks about our current course here, or how we ought to proceed.

Nevertheless, there is this fact: The cost of posting each U.S. soldier in Afghanistan is $1 million per year. Largely as promised, President Obama followed through on his campaign plank and increased the number of U.S. troops in Afghanistan by 30,000. Multiplied by 1,000,000, that seems like a significant sum, even in an age when trillion is the new billion.

Sending more troops is reflective of a long-standing American mindset: Problem? Send guns. Vietnam 1960-73. Lebanon 1982. Grenada 1983. Panama 1989. Iraq 2003. And, of course, Afghanistan 2001. Forgive me if I’ve left some out.

BUT, is there someone reading this who believes, based on some evidence, that (a) the Afghan conflict will last forever and ever; and (b) that U.S. troops will so finally quash not just the Taliban but the idea that spurs the Taliban, that we can declare unambiguously: Guns got the job done.

These thoughts were motivated by Nicholas Kristoff’s column this morning: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10… . One point in particular jumped off the page:

Mr. Mortenson says that $243 million is needed to fund all higher education in Afghanistan this year. He suggests that America hold a press conference here in Kabul and put just 243 of our 100,000 soldiers (each costing $1 million per year) on planes home. Then the U.S. could take the savings and hand over a check to pay for Afghanistan’s universities.

I urge you to follow the link to find out who Mr. Mortenson is and what he has achieved in Afghanistan.

Philosophers who read this site might nod his/her head at the notion that every beginning implies an end. In the case of the United States of America, land that I love, from the mountains to the prairies, to the oceans white with foam, I might nominate December 7, 1941, as the beginning. “Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition.”

The new day has dawned. Dawned awhile ago, while we weren’t paying attention. We still aren’t paying attention. Wake up, comrades.