War is the first resort of a war criminal

Bruce Arnold posted this on the Anarchy Think Tank listserv:

THE AFGHAN RAG

Yo, wake up texters, listen in,
Uncle Sam's after more boogeymen;
Dubya left Barack in a terrible jam
Way over in Afghanistan.
So put down your iPhone and pick up a gun,
We're gonna have a whole lotta fun.

And it's one, two, three,
What are we fighting for?
Not freedom or our fellow man,
Next stop's Afghanistan;
And it's five, six, seven,
Open up the pearly gates,
Well there ain't no need to wonder why,
For peak oil, we're all gonna die.

Well come on, McChrystal, let's move fast;
Your big chance has come at last.
Gotta kill all those towel heads;
Though Muslims ain't who we should dread.
Our robber barons, they're the ones
Who blew the Towers to kingdom come.

And it's one, two, three,
What are we fighting for?
Not freedom or our fellow man,
Next stop's Afghanistan;
And it's five, six, seven,
Open up the pearly gates,
Well there ain't no need to wonder why,
For peak oil, we're all gonna die.

Huh!

Well, come on Wall Street, don't move slow,
Since 9-1-1, it's go-go-go.
There's plenty good money to be made
Supplying both sides with the tools of the trade.
Just hope if they grab a Pakistani bomb,
They drop it on Dick Cheney's lawn.

And it's one, two, three,
What are we fighting for?
Not freedom or our fellow man,
Next stop's Afghanistan.
And it's five, six, seven,
Open up the pearly gates,
Well there ain't no need to wonder why,
For peak oil, we're all gonna die.

Well, come on mothers throughout the land,
Send your child to Afghanistan.
Come on fathers, don't hesitate,
Send 'em off before it's too late.
Be the first one on your block
To have your kid come home in a box.

And it's one, two, three
What are we fighting for?
Not freedom or our fellow man,
Next stop's Afghanistan.
And it's five, six, seven,
Open up the pearly gates,
Well there ain't no need to wonder why,
For peak oil, we're all gonna die.

--with apologies to Country Joe MacDonald

As widely forecast, Barack Obama has indeed committed the United States to an escalation of forces in Afghanistan. His speech has been republished in a number of outlets; I found it first here.

This speech reveals unclear thinking: Obama conflates the Taliban with al Qaeda, even though many suspect that the Taliban would not again host al Qaeda, and even though al Qaeda can operate from anywhere. He blatantly lies when he states, “It is from [Afghanistan and Pakistan] that we were attacked on 9/11;” the plotters worked from Germany, and face charges which rely upon German evidence. He claims that the Taliban insurgency is not a broad-based popular insurgency, yet he also claims that al Qaeda is the target. But a war–and modern war can only target civilians, and is thus inherently criminal–bolsters the insurgency.

Further, he claims a victory in Iraq which is illusory–the relative calm there is the result of ethnic cleansing, as evidenced by the millions of mostly Sunni Iraqis who now live abroad.

Obama resorts to a myth of the U.S. as a do-gooder in the world, reminding me of the saying that patriotism is the final (or first) resort of scoundrels. And that is what this speech reveals him to be: a scoundrel.

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