Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Tossing the COIN in Afghanistan


Our new counterinsurgency doctrine is obsolete before it has even been tried

by Justin Raimondo, November 04, 2009

(Cartoon by Carlos Latuff)

"....
More ominously, both the progressive and neocon wings of the War Party are laboring under another common yet mistaken assumption: that not only are we an empire, and rightly so, but we’re an empire on the ascent. In both cases, it seems, economics is not their strong point. One wonders how many more banks have to shutter their doors before these grand strategists wake up to the fact that the American empire is bankrupt.

Long before that signal event occurs, however, the intellectual and moral bankruptcy of our war-crazed foreign policy will become apparent to all who live outside the boundaries of the Imperial City. The makeshift and not very convincing legitimization of the Karzai regime, hailed by bilious communiqués of congratulations by our shameless world "leaders," goes a long way toward that realization.

Forget all the guff about that new counterinsurgency doctrine that will supposedly make it possible for us to achieve what other occupiers throughout Afghanistan’s long history failed to do. COIN theory is just administration propaganda, anyway, intended for domestic use, wheeled out in order to dress up the same old imperialism in a new garb and market a futile and costly war to the president’s "progressive" supporters. You can toss that COIN in the fountain, make a wish, and then forget about it, for all the good it will do.

But just remember: wishing doesn’t make it so."

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