Why we are losing

This post is basically a response - a rant if you will - I posted on a Tikun Olam blog post.

Here’s the deal soldier.
The US attack and occupation of Afghanistan was 100% justified. It was done with full support of the world’s community, with France, Russia, Iran ALL applauding the move and sharing intelligence on the taliban and al queda. What needed to happen was to show the islamic world that we mean business and that we, AMERICA, are a nation of our words. Turn Afghanistan perhaps not into paradise, but a more viable country. Kill or better yet capture bin laden. Kill the al queda chechens and other nations extremists. Give aid to Afghans. Make it work.

That would eliminate al queda and its message of jihad against America. Would defang it - make it a non issue.

Instead what happened was that the “war on terror” was cynically used to manipulate America into an illegal war in Iraq, which had nothing to do with 9/11. A war that was a blatant grab for oil. Abu Ghraib. Torture. Occupation a la Israel in the West Bank.

Now the world hates us. HATES us. Fears us. Recognizes us as a cynical bully, instead of the Superman with a red cape we tried to project ourselves as. France and Russia are actively working against us. So is Iran, which shared intelligence on al Queda before with us.

We had an opportunity to be a world leader, just like we were after 1945. We had an opportunity to be great - again.

And we blew it.

You know, soldier, that what we are doing in Iraq is just plain WRONG. It’s not our country; not our land; not our business. If we had to “liberate” these people from a cruel dictator, we could have done so and then worked with the UN to make it work. Get other armies there to help us also. Make a REAL coalition of the willing.

Instead, we now have soldiers dying for business profits. For oil. For an insane neocon ideology.

Here is a book for you, soldier:
Imperial Life in the Emerald City: Inside Iraq's Green Zone by Rajiv Chandrasekaran EVERY American needs to read that book. Buy it. Rent it. Borrow it. Steal it. But DO read it!

It’s short and yet powerful.

But… why bother.

It is too late now.
Our chance at greatness is gone.