Afghanistan War Notes: December 28, 2009

The American people showed off their brilliant foreign policy cred in a recent CNN poll. Put simply, Americans oppose the war in Afghanistan 55%-43%, but favor sending 30,000 more troops by 59%-39%. I suppose you could parse out what "opposing" a war means. Personally, when I oppose something I want it to stop. I've seen some bloggers and commenters try to twist the numbers to a logical conclusion, and there's some support for the notion that that Americans are fed up with the war, but willing to give it "one last try" with the troop surge. Since we know that the Obama administration is lying about the size and duration of the surge, it seems that the American people have been duped again.
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Our hearts go out to Bowe Bergdahl, the 23 year old Idahoan who was captured by the Taliban six months ago. Bergdahl was captured after he fell behind the rest of his group on patrol, and on Christmas the Taliban released a video in which Bergdahl read a statement. Bergdahl is being treated well by his captors, who probably recognize the propaganda opportunity that comes with treating a prisoner of war with dignity, in contrast to what we are doing in Bagram. I know the U.S has a sometimes policy of not negotiating with terrorists, but the Taliban are not a terrorist outfit, and it seems fair to Bergdahl's family to at least consider the Taliban's offer to release him in exchange for "a few prisoners" we are currently holding.
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Oh, and we are doing all kinds of crazy shit in Yemen. It was only a matter of time before the no longer called War on Terror expanded to another lawless backwater. The nation's dire poverty and authoritarian regime leads to great discontent, and easy recruiting for Al Qaeda. The U.S, for its part, has offered military aid and drones, instead of, obviously, support to improve the lives of regular people there. There is no doubt the war will continue to widen into a hard conflict, with a warmongering assist from the U.S Senate's worst person, Joe Lieberman, who yesterday called Yemen "the war of the future."