An Obama disaster in the making

The press is getting the unofficial word from nameless White House officials that Obama is likely to add 30,000 troops (roughly) to Afghanistan. Read this report here from the NY Times.

If he were to do this, he will jeopardize his domestic programs that are already strapped for funds, and he will send soldiers to die unnecessarily to fight a war without a firm agenda in a land that is fundamentally alien to global values.

To change that country turning it into a willing and effective ally is beyond the capability of 100,000 US GI's. No one can change a nation if it is not ready.

And no empire has ever subjugated Afghanistan which is called the country "where empires go to die" for good reasons. Russia, Britain, Persia all tried and failed. USA will be no different.

The logic of escalation will be cast in concrete once the 30,000 troops are sent. Why? Because if they can't "finish the job", more troops will be needed. Just as in Vietnam when the military consistently miscalculated what was needed with the acquiescence of a president too afraid to be the first to "lose a war".

That logic drove LBJ into early retirement and in the process turned the country into two decades of social and economic turmoil that is still reverberating to this day.