I'm sorry to hear that your brother is about to be deployed to Afghanistan. While I consider myself a patriotic American, and I respect and appreciate our armed services, I sometimes have doubts about the old fat men who send our kids out to fight and their reasons for doing so. I opposed (and still do,) the invasion of Iraq, for example.
But I'm torn over Afghanistan. There was a great open letter written to President Obama by William R. Polk:
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20091019/polk
I don't want to see Pakistan's nuclear weapons fall into the hands of terrorists, but I doubt that will happen no matter what we do. I think Professor Polk's ideas have a lot of merit, especially since he knows the history of the region and has experience with foreign wars.
But I wish your brother, (and his squad,) well. I hope they all come back to us unharmed from what can only be described as the most dangerous job on the planet.
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Date: 2009-10-18 07:03 pm (UTC)But I'm torn over Afghanistan. There was a great open letter written to President Obama by William R. Polk:
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20091019/polk
I don't want to see Pakistan's nuclear weapons fall into the hands of terrorists, but I doubt that will happen no matter what we do. I think Professor Polk's ideas have a lot of merit, especially since he knows the history of the region and has experience with foreign wars.
But I wish your brother, (and his squad,) well. I hope they all come back to us unharmed from what can only be described as the most dangerous job on the planet.
BTW - I'm also a huge fan of Ton Lehrer.