BY TOM HAYDEN
FOR HUFFINGTON POST
Words matter for Barack Obama, so the new President’s stated goal of a “hard-earned peace in Afghanistan” should be welcomed, at least cautiously.
He remains locked into his pledge to expand American forces by at least 20,000, and will not allow himself to retreat from that commitment.
But he did not pledge military victory in Afghanistan. He did not commitment himself to an open-ended occupation.
Therefore his only realistic opening, as I have written at this blog before, is to reframe the goals in Afghanistan- and Pakistan – as diplomatic ones, which means defining the US military role as a short-term holding action until a political settlement can be forged.
The peace movement must make a convincing case that Afghanistan is a quagmire that will squander the reputution and resources of the Obama administration, and make clear that the US wishes to pursue a diplomatic and political settlement, however patchwork, to reduce suffering and increase stability in Afghanistan. Creeping escalation should be strongly opposed.
As to Iraq, Guantanamo and Israel-Palestine, the next few days will determine the general direction of Obama’s policies. It is difficult to imagine expanding the burdens of empire while, at home, so many businessmen are beseeching the new President to save them from capitalism. The old assumption that imperial wars could salvage the economy and morale of the imperial power no longer seems to hold.
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