Swing Low Swing High Sweet Chariot
Obama Goes to War

If President Obama cannot protect himself at a White House soiree, how can you trust him with something infinitely more complex when he intentionally expands a ground war in Asia? If he permitted himself and the White House to be used to promote Bonnie and Clyde publicity scam artists, just wait until the military-industrial-congressional complex treats him like a terrier with a rag doll as he is tossed in the air as it pursues war profits, medals and promotions in the Hindu Kush.

The Secret Service, now bureaucratically under the control of hopeless Homeland Security, permitted a con-artist couple to crash a state reception/dinner for the President of India. The Secret Service responding to its failure declared limply that procedures were not followed... that no one checked off the guest lists as the guests arrived... that the guests were checked through metal detectors. So what? You can murder a victim with a broken wine glass or a butter knife off a set table. As if idiotic proof of the danger and Secret Service incompetence was needed, the outlaw couple were photographed with Obama in the receiving line.

At minimum the Secret Service Chief should be demoted back to chasing the presidential limos on foot. Who cares how cozy he or his team is with the president? Maybe too cozy, as he let the country down. At minimum his continued presence in the position rewards his incompetence. Business as usual? And the band plays on.

Why in the world Obama chose to expand the war in Afghanistan when he knew in his bones and mind that it is a terrible thing to do. He put his intellect, instinct and integrity to do the right thing aside. It had nothing to do with the decision over which he had publicly agonized over months with high viz. meetings at the White House.

The whole thing is about economics; it is more apparent historically that the US needs permanent war to remain afloat economically and fully employed. FDR's WWII was a classic example: all his government intervention could not bring the country out of the depression. It did not happen until the whole economy was put on a state capitalism diet and mobilized for the all-out war effort. Now that was a stimulus package. The subsequent war regimes were tweaked by the Korean War, the Vietnam war; all these under the rubric of the Cold War. When General McArthur wanted to win the Korean War decisively, President Truman fired him.

As President Eisenhower left office he warned the American people of the insidious military/industrial complex that could drive US political and economic policies. IKE's granddaughter was later to add Eisenhower originally wanted to warn over the military-industrial-congressional threat, but dropped congressional to avoid offending his legislative pals.

Once the USSR collapsed, the Bushes turned to wars in the Middle East: first Kuwait then, Iraq. The Afghanistan war as a 9/11 reprisal sanction should have ended quickly with the death or capture of Bin Laden at Tora Bora and Taliban Chief Mullah Omar at Kandahar; but Rumsfeld and General Tommy Franks mysteriously permitted them to escape. But the continued military fumbling has inflamed the region now destabilizing Pakistan, especially as the US tilts to India with pending uranium deliveries.

With al Qaeda long gone, there is no cogent military reason to remain in Afghanistan except for small highly mobile US special operations forces. The only reasons to remain is a 30 billion dollar economic stimulus; permanent bases are already under construction in Afghanistan which is as cynical as it gets as you trade blood for dollars. A smarter policy is withdraw. The Taliban should be warned to bid farewell to their poppy fields and Kandahar should it permit an al Qaeda return to Afghanistan .

Obama will learn that times have changed. Economic stimulus caused by war does not work with the dollar at 50¢ to a Euro, oil at $80 a barrel, trillion dollar deficits, and jobs permanently disappeared through globalization and massive trade imbalances. Jobs have gone to China that holds billions in US dollars and floods US markets through bad US trade deals. Interest rates will soar. Housing foreclosures will out-pace sales.

Obama says he wants most troops out of Afghanistan in three years. Is he self-delusional?The US military does the long long goodbye thing; in three years he will be still be in Iraq and the US forces will be unfinished deploying to Afghanistan. Expect some bullshit slogan - WE CANNOT CHANGE HORSES IN THE MIDDLE OF THE STREAM, or a GWBush favorite: WE CANNOT LET OUR TROOPS DIE IN VAIN.

Obama does not know what he doing. He treats the war as a board game. One step forward and two steps back. Forward with new deployments and back with withdrawal and turn over to NATO. Way too many moving parts to be an effective strategy. US military needs a very firm hand to control it. It does not respond to cajoling by neighborhood organizers or professors. Colonel Robert E Bartos USA Ret.


Excerpted from GOOGLE: Apollo was the god of the sun. Each day he drove his chariot of fiery horses across the sky to give light to the world. Apollo had a son called Phaeton, who was human. Phaeton nagged at Apollo to let him borrow the sun chariot and fly across the sky. Finally Apollo agreed. Phaeton proudly drove the sun chariot up into the sky, but then he lost control of the horses. The sun chariot dived towards the earth, burning everything. Finally Jupiter had to stop him with a thunder bolt.