Tom Ricks, author of the best-sellers Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraq, 2003 to 2005
and The Gamble: General David Petraeus and the American Military Adventure in Iraq, 2006-2008
, on the June 27, 2010 Meet the Press after arguing to Congresswoman Barbara Lee (D-CA) that leaving Afghanistan now would lead to an “endless war” (“I think if you want an endless war, Congresswoman, leave Afghanistan right now, and you’ll find us having to go after al-Qaeda again and again there for decades.”):
TOM RICKS: I don’t think it does. I think we have landed in the middle of the Middle East, for better or worse, in a way that none of us expected us to. I think the war in Afghanistan was made much worse by the distracting war in Iraq, which never should have happened. But we are dealing with phenomena in the Middle East that’s going to be crucial to this country as long as we’re dependent on Middle East oil. So the best exit strategy I can think of is emphasize alternative fuels.
Um, yeah. Bingo. (On the “alternative fuels” part, not the ‘can’t leave now’ part.)
The fastest way to out of Afghanistan is to get Barack Obama out of the White House.
Yeah, Billy. That’ll work! Genius! Yeesh.
Here’s an even better way to take out Al Qaeda and the Taliban: END THE DRUG WAR!!!
Al Qaeda, the Taliban, and even our own allies, are all making huge amounts of cash off of the war on drugs. By making drugs illegal, we force them into the black market, where only the most hardcore and violent criminals can make money off of it.
Whether or not a person is in favor of the war in afghanistan, it is undeniable the the legalization of all narcotics would dramatically improve the situation out there.
It would dramatically improve the situation on the entire planet actually. The same drug money that fuels Al Qaeda is the same money that fuels the drug cartels, the mafias, and the street gangs all over the world. It guarantees corruption in even the highest levels of government, even our own, and let’s face it – nobody is profiting from it more than the banks and the U.S. government.
One of the most important goals of any activist or voter who wants to make the world a better place has to be the legalization of all drugs. It’s fueling violence, war, and corruption worldwide. It’s too important to be a side issue. This really needs to be moved into the spotlight. (Not to be interpreted as a criticism of the Brad Blog, you guys rock).
The number one catch phrase of every election now must be, and I will never stop saying it, “Never vote for anybody who supports the War on Drugs.”
(I would suggest to anybody who disagrees with this that you start researching money laundering, specifically the laundering of drug money)
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And I should also note that I definitely agree with the article above – alternative energy sources would be a huge step towards helping end the war. Unfortunately though, until we get cold fusion going, none of the alternatives will come anywhere close to replacing oil. Now I’m not saying that we shouldn’t get off oil, we definitely need to. I’m just saying that there really is nothing available yet that can actually replace it yet.
Space solar panels look pretty promising though, lol. Hopefully the various space agencies of the world will be able to get their acts together soon enough to get them up there.
Until then though, unfortunately, I think we can expect the energy wars to get a lot worse.