Harold's Left:
I have been on a wonderful three week hiatus as I am officially out-processed from the military and now a civilian. In that time I have been paying attention to the two major things that have happened over the past weeks; Afghanistan and Health Care reform's perilous death. Here are some initial thoughts on each, and in the coming weeks I hope we can follow these topics a bit more closely.
Afghanistan:
As most of you already know, I am just weeks removed from spending nearly a year as an army airborne infantryman on the Pakistani border. While this does not make me an expert on all things Afghanistan, it does give me a unique perspective on what the ground fight there is (and is not). It is brutal. It is hot. It is dangerous and lethal. It is not a fight with Al-Qeada. It's not the "epicenter of Muslim extremism", nor is it a place that will change at all with the addition of 30,000 troops. I went to obscure villages tucked in remote valleys all over the Pesh and Korengal that had literally never seen American troops. We are talking eight years into the war folks. Afghanistan is a congregation of nightmarish mountains passes, obscure villages, and traditional tribes. There is little to no inter-connectivity between these villages, and almost no connection or affiliation with the Afghan central government. The notion that 30,000 more troops, most of whom will be support soldiers that will never leave the base, can somehow turn around one of the five poorest countries in the world in 24 months is silly. Actually, it's more than silly, it asinine. However, given all this I do understand that this was Obama's only real viable political play and I also know that he campaigned on Afghanistan (which also seemed more politically motivated than ideologically convicted). Yet, my assumption that Obama would make bold new decisions based on new sets of facts seems premature.
Health Care Reform:
Is anyone else as depressed as I am over health care reform? Here's what we know. The public option is all but dead. The Medicare buy-in has been essentially killed by Joe "I seriously hate you so much" Lieberman and even with this watered down bill, Sen. Ben Nelson is still holding out as the 60th vote. Remember a month ago when progressives (including myself) were ecstatic over the House's passage of health care reform? While aware that the Senate has always been a more conservative institution, I was initially encouraged by Sen. Reid's commitment to meaningful reform. However, the realities of our big tent have come to bite us in the ass. What's even worse is that if we don't get this done before the summer election season we may have to wait another generation to ever get anything done. That's the sad reality to American politics at this point. We have a completely failed health insurance system and we can't even fix it because there are simply too many people out there who are beholden to the fear tactics of Fox News and the conservative movement. More to come on all of this.
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Well Harold, Liberals said the same thing about Iraq and the surge there- it is unwinnable. Well, Iraq is stabilized, the surged worked. In Afghanistan- we MUST win, we must not allow Al-Qaeda to re-establish itself there, which is precisely what will happen if the Taliban regains control. I have faith in your brothers and sisters in the military to finish the job.
On health-care, we need a bill that will bring down the cost, not cost the taxpayer any more money, and not put the government in charge of our health decisions. This bill does not accomplish that, in fact does the opposite. It also would imprison people who do not buy healthcare, or pay the tax penalty for not having it. I hope it is dead for good, but we'll see.
That being said, Thank you for your service, I am glad to see you made it safely through your tenure. Welcome Back. Have a blessed Christmas. God bless the US armed servicepeople, and God Bless the USA.
December 16, 2009 11:34 AM