Time to cry "uncle", Uncle

Yesterday in Afghanistan, Afghan police recruit Mohammad Ismail received his new assault rifle to begin training, and immediately trained it on his US trainers, killing two. Later that day an Afghan soldier wounded two more coalition soldiers in another of the so-called "Green on Blue" attacks, which have skyrocketed from one a month to one a week to an almost daily occurrence. The eleven such attacks last year are now dwarfed by the 29 in just seven and a half months this year.

The Pentagon is having trouble keeping the lid on this grotesque response of Afghans to our takeover and occupation of their country. They were only reporting them when a US soldier was killed while covering up non-lethal attacks. The press is onto their game and is giving them the publicity they deserve. The Pentagon now claims they are mostly due to personal disputes between the Afghans and US soldiers instead of representing opposition to our occupation.

Bunk! We must be the stupidest and most immoral country on Earth to squander ten billion dollars weekly to maintain a lost war which is needlessly killing and injuring thousands of Afghans and US soldiers with absolutely no goal or end in sight. It's not pleasant to admit the entire venture was fought in vain, but its infinitely worse to pretend its a valid exercise of national self defense. The vast majority of the electorate recognize this truth but feel powerless to end it, particularly when neither Presidential candidate recognizes it as an important election issue. The entire Obama administration, the Congress and the military, know its a worthless, lost cause, but, with rare exceptions, are too frightened and too cowardly to speak the truth and act on it. They have no problem letting the locals and the American canon fodder get blown up by American bombs and Afghan roadside bombs; and pretending that 'Green on Blue' are simply two colors of the rainbow.

Come on, Uncle Sam, cry "uncle" and get those brave but deluded boys and girls with targets tacked to their backs, back where they belong.

Ryan's recipe for ruin: All guns, no butter

The media picture of Vice Presidential pick Paul Ryan is that of a fiscally conservative budget cutter. All the attention is focused on how he will save trillions over the next decade by cutting medicare, medicade, social security and other vital threads of the social safety net.

Alas, that is only half the Ryan plan for America. He has spent 14 years in Congress voting to fund every dollar of our senseless trillion dollar wars of murder and mayhem in the Middle East that are bankrupting America while its infrastructure rots. The Ryan you never see resides deep within the Military-Industrial-Congressional Complex, defending every in-defensible weapons system regardless of how ineffective and unnecessary they may be.

The vast majority of Americans are unaware of his 2011 address before the Alexander Hamilton society in which he trumpeted need for American world wide hegemony, preposterously claiming the Obama administration has chosen for America to decline and let China and Russia lead the world. Ryan's budget proposals include increased military spending far above current levels while cutting money for state department diplomatic efforts and foreign aid not tied to rampant militarism.

Besides being foolhardy and self destructive, Ryan seeks to fund this guns only policy by cutting off the butter that nourishes the poor and rebuilds our crumbling infrastructure. Yet, talk of using domestic spending cuts to promote a bloated war and military budget never crosses Ryan's lips so there are none to read about this heartless slight of hand. But the ultra conservative crowd is jubilant over the prospect of a true all guns, no butter ideologue one heartbeat away from the Presidency.

The millions of folks in need who inexplicably find this prospect of a bleak American future appealing, better be thinking about their next meal and next medical crisis when they enter the voting booth November 6.

FRANKENSTEIN REMAKE TO STAR UNCLE SAM, AL-QAIDA

If Hollywood were seeking the perfect cast for a Frankenstein remake, they should look no further than Uncle Sam as Dr. Henry Frankenstein and al-Qaida as the monster

They wouldn't need rehersals since they could simply act out their real life drama of creation and betrayal. Like the misguided Doctor, Uncle Sam helped create al-Qaida in the mid 1980's as a means of waging proxy war against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan. The US CIA's Operation Cyclone channeled funds and training to the Afghan Mujahedeen through Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence Agency. Afghan Mujahedeen eventually combined with foreign Mujahedeen inspired by Osama bin-Laden and other fanatics to form al-Qaida. The US effort to defeat the Soviets in Afghanistan was so successful the radical Islamists involved were inspired to expand their operations against all non Islamic influences in the region, including their benefactor Uncle Sam.

Maybe that's a stretch to the creation of the monster and his betrayal of Dr. Frankenstein. But the scenario comes to mind as we learn that Uncle Sam is once again flirting with al-Qaida in their support for the Syrian rebels fighting to overthrow Syrian strongman Bashar al-Assad. Apparently, al-Qaida has wormed its way into the coalition of forces Uncle Sam and his Western and Middle East allies are supplying with arms and intelligence so they can control the outcome. Endless warfare sure makes strange bedfellows.

If Frankenstein is remade with the aforementioned cast, it would no doubt get a R rating: restricted to anyone over the age of reason. A more appropriate rating would be T for truthfulness.

Also published in the Kane County Chronicle, August 18, 2012