by anderson
Like a wad of dead gum stuck to the roof of the mouth, I've had this
David Brooks item on the burner for a bit and wanted to clear it off,
now that Obama has officially advanced the military aspect of the
Afghanistan escalation. The critical aspect of the escalation, it
turns out, is not the escalation, but McChrystal's plan to bring local
Afghans and the US military together. A sing-a-along is surely on tap
once those troublesome Afghans lay down their arms and bask in the
glories of freedom and democracy.
It's hard to know what, exactly, David Brooks believes. His mind is
such a slough of establishment guano, he'll suck up anything shot, spat
or shat at him, savour it longingly, and then regurgitate his lightly
masticated establishment shit-cud onto his adoring readers, whoever
these sadly misdirected people may be.
Which begs the question: besides the jerk-offs on the mainstream
media yak-abouts, who are these people? Which begs further still
speculation that David Brooks is simply an establishment foil, a
lightning rod for scorn and opprobrium, conducting outrage against the
depredations of empire safely to ground.
HIs latest dollop reeks of Pentagon ejaculate, an ode to Gen.
McChrystal and his desire, nay threat, to go big or fail in Afghanistan.
This is a doctrine, as General McChrystal wrote in his
remarkable report, that puts population protection at the center of the
Afghanistan mission, that acknowledges that insurgencies can only be defeated when local communities and military forces work together.
Local Afghan communities working together with US military forces. My,
what a dream. It's like Martin Luther King. McChrystal is a genius
isn't he? Apparently, in David Brooks' withering eye. Why, what better
a partnership than "local communities" -- a phrase granted by his
imperious perspective -- and invading military forces? Despite there
being no actual evidence in the history of humankind that occupation
military forces and the besieged "local communities" get along all that
well, McChrystal surely has a new formula, one that somehow overrides
the historical reality that it is that insurgencies and local
communities that work together against an invader. And, you, General
McChrystal, are the invader. This war will end when you leave, perhaps not well until after you leave, but not
before.
Of
course, this is nothing General McChrsytal and the rest of the military
establishment do not already know. The fight cannot be about
establishing representative government because the fight will not end.
They know this. Which means this war, and its proposed escalation, are
about something else. But establishment care takers like David Brooks
do not occupy lofty chairs in their chosen profession because they are
noble truth tellers.
But then, you already knew that.
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