Ones and Zeros

US News and World Report has an article saying that the Pentagon is considering paying and arming Afghan militias. Back in the late 1980’s President Carter, of all people, started doing this too. He was concerned (or was influenced by Zbigniew Brzezinski’s concern) about the modern reform socialist government that had overthrown the old king and was running the country. This government had close ties to Russia which justified overthrowing them apparently.

When Reagan took office, he continued that covert program and expanded it sending funds and weapons. (See the movie Charlie Wilson’s War for one side of that story and several “60 minutes” reports for another.) The warlords and their private armies (let’s call them as they are, not militias) succeeded in defeating Russia in Afghanistan with the help of U.S. funds and weapons. But, this also had the side effect of creating the Taliban - a fundamentalist theocracy not noted for its tolerance or friendly attitudes. And Al Queda was created by the Taliban to export that theocracy to the rest of the world.

According to Wikipedia and other sources, the Taliban’s leaders were actually under the pay of the U.S. till sometime in 1999 under Clinton. Of course, in September of 2001 they memorably rejected our support with hijacked transport category aircraft. We are now considering defensive measures for the Stinger missles we gave to the Mujahideen.

We started with some of the least educated and most close-minded of Afghanistan society. We ended up the same way. It’s not a great leap of imagination to see the connection. Although the specifics could not have been clear, the boomerang effect was entirely predictable.

I know it is not traditional but just once, damn it, I would like to see American foreign policy take into account the long-term results of our meddlesome efforts. It is stupid for us to spend each new generation repairing the “misadventures” of the last.

In the WSJ Peggy Noonan writes an opinion piece on Dec 5 where she talks about republican wealth in northern Virginia as a result of government work. She also talks about government being a growth industry through good times and bad. She suggested that Obama change the name of Homeland Security to something less Nazi-sounding - also a pet peeve of mine.

But much of her piece talks about how the republicans have the meme that no matter what you think of Bush at least “he kept us safe” since 9/11. WTF? In what way did he increase our safety?

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See this survey and simple test that the Intercollegic Studies Institute gave to 2500 people. Many of those who self-identify as elected officials didn’t do well. And the results in general might explain how the country got into our current political and economic mess.

The report says, “Seventy-one percent of Americans fail the test, with an overall average score of 49%.” and “Officeholders typically have less civic knowledge than the general public. On average, they score 44%, five percentage points lower than non-officeholders.” Conservatives and republicans did better than liberals and democrats. In short, a lot of us need to stop watching TV news (another finding) do some self-educating!

I got the two questions 10 and 33 wrong out of the 33 questions. Can you best me? I double-dog dare you! Take the test and post your results in the comments!

Unless you’ve just come out of a two-year case of amnesia you know. The world knows. America has repudiated the last eight years and elected Obama through a massive turnout and decisive electoral victory. In a gracious and conciliatory speech, Senator John McCain conceded last night. While he acted with dignity his crowd did not and booed Obama’s name before he stopped them.

President-Elect Obama gave his acceptance speech in Chicago at Grant Park last night after accepting calls from both Sen. McCain and President Bush. The President told the President-Elect, “What an awesome night for you”.

After eight years of the Bush administration, and years before of having a Governor Bush, my wife and I feel light. A weight has been lifted off of all of our shoulders. We all have regained the country of our ideals and are once again moving toward higher principles instead of away from our fears. We again have the American of our dreams and not of our nightmares.

As President-Elect Obama (I love typing that phrase) made most clear. This is not the end but the start of the work. We have two wars, an economy close to meltdown, and major environmental issues. None of this can or will be solved quickly. It’s taken us many years to create these problems and will take many to solve them. Those are posts for another day.

We now have the possibility of solving those problems. So today I am happy.