America's Global War of Terror

[Red Monkey Queen]

I decided to consolidate all this into one thread for the future, since it's all kinda especially inter-related. So anyhow, here's the latest from Afghanistan:

July has been the deadliest month of the entire war to date for the U.S. occupation troops. (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100730/ap_on_re_as/as_afghanistan) The previous record of 60 U.S. troop deaths, set last month, has been broken as of today for a new record of fully 66, with still one more day left to go in the month. A strong majority of Americans now favors the establishment of a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. troops. The Afghanistan War is now the longest war in American history, surpassing even the Vietnam War in duration. General Petraeus, who now heads up the war effort after the former guy in charge, McChrystal, publicly opposed the president's whole idea of even considering a drawdown in troop levels at some point next year and characterized Obama and his team as "the wimps in the White House", explains that, quote "My sense is that the tough fighting will continue; indeed, it may get more intense in the next few months."

The U.S. isn't particularly winning the war. The Marjah invasion failed to win over the loyalty of the local population and the Taliban has regrouped there. The U.S. was thereby forced to delay its planned invasion of Kandahar from June until September. Nevertheless, the last two months have been the bloodiest yet for the American occupation forces, which suggests they are making little real progress, if any, toward their objective of consolidating their grip on the entire country.

[Made_in_America]

War on Terror, more like War on Energy...

Algae biodiesel is going to be Americas solution. And to answer your question, yes it is cleaner & it is cheaper than hi-jacking over 9 billion barrels of oil a day, 7237 miles away from Bagdad. Think about it, it takes more energy to get a gallon of gasoline than a gallon of gasoline contains.

Besides, there is nothing more American than creating the energy we need everyday right in our backyard and yes, we can finally have a product that will save our economy that can be Made in USA!

Plus, don't be fooled by the $2.xx price tag of your gasoline. You are only paying half the price because the other half is given to oil companies by our government thru subsidizes by the federal government, hidden fees which are payed for by you through federal income tax.

Look what America has gotten itself into. Since 1980, we have racked up a foriegn national debt of a total of 3.5 trillion dollars to China, Suadi Arabia, Japan and England. So here, you have a government who makes the decisions & for who? You! And you are the one who has to pay for it, & your children, & your children's children, and so on.

We are so broke as a country we have gotten to the point were we can either pay that debt back to those countries or we can hold up a gas station. So here we come Iraq, The "War on Terror." We are holding up Iraq for their oil.

You better believe Algae biodiesel is the answer to our future because nothing & nobody else is going to give us literally the ENERGY we need to survive. Along with other renewable energies.

[Red Monkey Queen]

Yeah, I'm more for putting the whole effort of any energy program (or at least nearly the whole effort, including the financial resources) into rapidly developing wind and solar energy, which are the real, environmentally sustainable answers for the 21st century.

And I don't really care for the reactionary "buy American" nationalist position myself. Not that we should be plundering the resources of other countries (as we are) of course, but rather I mean that we shouldn't seek to defend the American ruling class in such a way. (Or in any way, for that matter.) It can't lead to anything good. I mean, your view seems to be basically coming from a patriotic perspective: toward America 'winning' a trade war with China or something of this nature. How does 'winning' a trade war benefit the people of this country, let alone the people of the world? In this connection, think about what the marketing term "competitive advantage" refers to. It refers to workers being treated worse on one front than another, thereby lowering the cost of production for the employer who sets up base in the "advantageous" location. (Well, "cost of production" here I guess is assuming the hypothetical business in question actually does productive work at all.) So who then is having a "competitive advantage" over other countries in fact advantageous to? You and me through the worsening of our working conditions? Someone overseas whose job resultingly evaporates via increased outsourcing to America? No, the sole beneficiary of American "competitive advantage" is the American capitalist class.

[Red Monkey Queen]

American opposition to the Afghanistan War has now reached a record high. (http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/aug2010/afgh-a04.shtml) A recent USA Today poll finds that support for the Obama Administration's war policy has fallen from 48 percent in February to 36 percent, and, more fundamentally, that a record 43 percent of those surveyed believed the U.S. should never have invaded Afghanistan at all. One should note that this latter statistic is more fundamental and sweeping than simple opposition to continuing the war. It is a measure of what population percentage has come to not just oppose the war, but that percentage which has come to oppose it in principle and in sum total, including the entire history thereof. The majority of the population already opposes the war. What this poll suggests is that this opposition is intensifying. The linked article contextualizes this development.

[Red Monkey Queen]

Now we're setting up permanent military bases in Afghanistan. (http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/aug2010/afgh-a24.shtml) Nope, not the sign of an indefinite neo-colonial occupation. :rolleyes: Kinda like how earlier this summer we "discovered" Afghanistan's mineral wealth. (http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/jun2010/afgh-j15.shtml) ;) But all this has nothing to do with the indefinite plundering of resources, you understand. This is all about fostering a functioning democracy that serves the Afghan masses.