DO YOU WANT TO KNOW THE REAL MCCHRYSTAL SCANDAL?

It has nothing to do with McChrystal’s insubordinate remarks about his bosses.

It has nothing with Obama’s accepting the general’s resignation.

I haven’t even read much about this “breaking news.” I don’t need to. The real scandal was already in effect.

THE REAL SCANDAL lies in the fact that the war in Afghanistan has now gone on longer than any other war in US history, yet for some reason it’s known as “the forgotten war.”

THE REAL SCANDAL is that Obama has sent 3 times more soldiers to the country than George W. Bush did.

THE REAL SCANDAL is that Obama announced this jump in troop numbers as a “surge.” Excuse me. A surge is a quick pulse, a quick flare-up, or as Obama meant it, a quick and forceful military escalation to defeat our enemies once and for all. But no matter how you define “surge” it will always be something quick. Sorry, but anything involving years ain’t no kinda quick no way no how.

THE REAL SCANDAL is that to date, the expenditure in Afghanistan will soon reach $1 trillion. Hmmmm. Might that chunk of change come in handy in this country? In February, the Pentagon even spent more in Afghanistan than in Iraq!: $6.7 billion in Afghanistan, $5.5 billion in Iraq.

THE REAL SCANDAL is that a good chunk of this change goes to pay off Afghan warlords so they can continue harvest and sell 90% of the world’s heroin poppies. Most of the heroin comes to this country and we pay again by giving change to junkies. And then our tax dollars pay for the junkies' needle exchanges and methadone clinics for them. What a racket!

THE REAL SCANDAL is that no one can really define our mission in Afghanistan. Troops were deployed to battle Al Quaeda’s stronghold there. That stronghold moved to Pakistan. General Petraeus himself stated recently that the number of Al Quaeda still in Afghanistan is in the double digits, IF ANY! So what exactly are our troops doing there? It has been widely stated that US policy will not change due to McChrystal’s departure.

We are currently using the military technique called counterinsurgency. But the insurgents have all left the country--so who is it we’re countering? The troops are now stabilizing the war-torn country by building schools and other trappings of civilization so that the future insurgent candidates will be so comfy they’ll be less likely to insurge.

Soldiers building schools, hungh? We sure could use some of their manpower back home. We could also use some soldiers to patch up our ailing infrastructure. Or they could head to the Gulf and operate those booms which would have been much more effective against guarding the land against the oil spill if BP had applied enough manpower to set it up and maintain a system of booms properly. But no, the military is too busy trying to stabilize a backward country with a dozen Al Quaeda in it as our country becomes poorer and messier every day.

THE REAL SCANDAL is that Obama has chosen David Petraeus to replace McChrystal. Really? General Betray Us who was the subject of a controversial Moveon.org ad ? The ad claimed that in Iraq, Petraeus "offered a twisted version of the truth designed to support prolonging the war" and that "the public needs to know that Petraeus is neither objective nor trustworthy when it comes to assessing progress in Iraq." THIS IS THE HAWKISH LIAR WE ARE SENDING TO REPLACE MCCHRYSTAL? A GUY WHO FUDGED THE NUMBER OF TROOPS WHO DIED IN IRAQ BY NOT COUNTING DEATHS FROM CAR BOMBS? I guess the Pentagon considers getting blown to bits by car bombs a natural cause of death.



THE REAL SCANDAL is that Afghanistan has been unconquerable for centuries—since the days of Alexander the Great and Genghis Khan, both of whom failed to tame the unruly region. Since then, the British, Russians and the US have all tried without success. But the people of this dirt-poor country have allegiance to whoever is offering them money for food at that time. Does a win for the US consist of stabilizing a nation with an incredibly corrupt government that’s made up of ethnic groups who’ve been battling each other for centuries based on deep-rooted, centuries-old feuds?

THE REAL SCANDAL is that according to the Washington Post, 53% of Amercians consider the war in Afghanistan not worth fighting.

THE REAL SCANDAL is that our government has no desire to withdraw from Afghanistan or win. Not only do companies get rich from war, but we need a military occupation of Afghanistan to create a pipeline to run oil from Iraq, which we are also occupying because it’s the largest untapped oil source in the world. And new discoveries of mineral deposits in Afghanistan could make it a gold mine of the lithium needid in the manufacture of Blackberries.

De-stabilizing the Middle East has been a documented priority for conservatives for decades. It’s much easier to loot a country that’s in shambles. We are there for the oil. And we must truly have serious addiction if we’re prepared to sacrifice military personnel so that a few can get richer by raping Afghanistan and Iraq. Greed keeps us there—not safety from further attacks.

THE REAL SCANDAL is that we aren’t making the US safer by occupying Afghanistan or Iraq. Long-term military occupations which result in many thousands of civilian casualties only make arabs/muslims hate us more, thereby ensuring future attacks on US soil for generations to come. If your family exploded in front of your eyes, wouldn’t you want to lash out at the villain responsible for it? The USA would is that villain.

THE REAL SCANDAL is that Obama has foolishly allowed a crisis in the Gulf of Mexico to make him seem indecisive. How could this intelligent man have forgotten that another crisis in the Gulf , Katrina, permanently soured the nation’s opinion of his predecessor’s effectiveness as a leader? Now we realize that Obama couldn’t go after BP too fiercely since it’s the 4th largest company in the world and he’s ruled by the almighty dollar. So in part, General McChrystal’s termination was orchestrated to make the president look like a potent executive at a time when Obama’s ratings were tanking over his handling of the spill.

THE REAL SCANDAL is that we should never have invaded Iraq in the first damn place. It’s this country’s first pre-emptive war and it was based on evidence of Saddam having WMD’s which we now know to be false. The perpetrators of this war should be in jail. Why isn’t Obama prosecuting them? Because he has the same war strategy as Bush!

THE REAL SCANDAL is that we allowed ourselves to be tricked so easily into invading Iraq with no evidence of their guilt. I can’t believe that two liberal lesbian friends from San Francisco actually cheered the attack on Iraq because they viewed Saddam as such a bad guy. The world would be a better place without his cruel dictatorship, they thought. So we ousted him, and the county descended into chaos. It could be argued that even though Saddam was a merciless dictator, perhaps he was the only bastard mean enough to keep his country’s warring factions in check.

THE REAL SCANDAL is that we consider ourselves a Christian nation yet we willing to ignore the commandment THOU SHALT NOT KILL to kill Iraqis who never had WMDs or plans to attack us.

THE REAL SCANDAL is that even liberal-leaning news outlets like CNN and the New York Times both publicly apologized for being soft on Bush and not questioning his motives to attack--after it was too late. (So imagine how soft Fox News’ questions were.) The press even went along with the White House’s banning footage of soldiers’ caskets from broadcasts. Of course, Congress members had to vote for the war or they'd seem unpatriotic to their constituents and not get voted back in..

THE REAL SCANDAL is that Americans are not Christians at all bloodthirsty terrorists. Sure, we were all in shock after 9/11 and therefore quick to seek revenge on any arab nation. Pick an arab, kill an arab, any ol’ arab will do. This is a deep stain on this nation’s honor and until we open that wound and acknowledge our enormous, bloody, costly mistake, the wound can’t begin to heal. We’ll bleat “Support the troops!” until we’re blue in the face, but we don’t seem to care WHAT it is that we support them doing. Or whether or not there is a good reason to put them in harm's way. We don't even want to know. Or even see their coffins, for chrissakes!

Due to our shallowness, we’re not able to describe or justify our mission in Afghanistan and Iraq. But I’ll bet you we’re totally up to date on the latest Jennifer Aniston’s scandalous romance, Lady Gaga’s s latest scandalous outfit, and the newest scandalous detail about the face of Heidi Montag. An about face to get the hell out of Afghanistan is the scandal we need to focus our pea brains on. And leaving Afghanistan isn’t likely to happen with a lying, hawk like General Petraeus now in charge.