Leave Iraq and Colonize Afghanistan

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Why we should leave Iraq but  cannot leave Afghanistan.

When American forces Invaded Iraq it was a sovereign country with a functioning government.  More importantly basic infrastructure such as schools, transportation, and commerce were established.  I am not claiming it was a good government structure, just that basic 20th century infrastructure  existed.  Iraq has electricity, running water, sewer systems and basic government services now.  Most of the infrastructure to support a modern society in Iraq is brand new thanks to the $45 Billion US Taxpayers have donated.  The Iraqi people have enough education to effectively continue without the US Military.  State Department personnel are going to continue supplying training, management, and support to the infant democracy.  Iraq will be OK by themselves.  There are going to be some rocky times for country of Iraq, but that is part of learning cooperation and compromise.   

Afghanistan has not ever had modern infrastructure.  Prior to the current government warlords have ruled tribal territories  since the Soviet withdrawal in 1989.  Post Offices, schools, roads and an entire government structure has to be built.  President John F. Kennedy said "Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other."  Education is Afghanistan is deplorable.  Kabul University, the only University in the country, was respected Internationally in the 1970’s.  Under Taliban rule the University was decimated.  Education for women was banned in 1992 under a Taliban decree.   Their were no courts when the US military arrived.  Village elders, tribal justice and warlord rule were the law of the land.  Afghanistan will continue to be a country of desperate, illiterate, hungry people if the US fails to establish a government and infrastructure.  That is the formula for terrorism.  People whose lives are miserable, do not mind dying.    

Iraq can stand on its own and its people have a chance to participate in modern human society.  It will not be easy and the new Democracy will struggle along the way.  Economic activity is rising in Iraq and providing a standard of living for its citizens.  Iraq's oil fields provide a source of income for infrastructure projects and government services.  Iraqi society will never be perfect, but neither is the US.  Afghanistan is a war torn strip of barren land.  It does not have 20th century infrastructure.  In order to bring Afghans into civilization the US and its allies have to construct basic infrastructure and teach Afghans to administer it.  That is a 20 year  project at best.  Leaving Afghanistan will result in the same situation or worse than existed prior to 9/11/2001.  Military troops might not always be the answer but for now they are the only choice.  

Technorati Tags: Afghanistan,Middle East,education,war,State Department

The GI Bill Transformed America: Will it happen again?

Thanks to the Post 9/11 GI Bill , Modern Veterans will can receive an education from virtually any educational institute in the world.  Previous Veterans who took advantage of this program succeeded in transforming America.  Can the Modern Veterans transform America again?

    During World War II 617,817 veterans were wounded and 405,399 men and women sacrificed their lives.  Hundreds of thousands of dependents were in need of assistance because of these losses.   Furthermore, millions of returning service members had spent four or more years engaged in brutal conflict.  With broad support of the American public sweeping reforms were made to the VA system.  The post WWII “Servicemen’s Read Adjustment Act of 1944,” better known as the GI Bill of Rights, or just the GI Bill transformed veteran benefits.  This bill defined who a veteran was.  It established the VA hospital system, disability compensation, loan guarantees and education benefits.

 The education benefit proved to be the most controversial of the provisions for numerous reasons.  College administrators objected because many felt the education system could not handle the sudden influx of returning veterans.  James Conant, President of Harvard University, objected because the education benefit was that it was open to all veterans and it did not “distinguish between those who can profit most by advanced education and those who cannot.”  President Conant later changed his position saying “The veterans are the most mature and promising students Harvard has ever had”.   

Once the educational benefits were enacted, American society would be forever altered.  In 1940 fewer than 1.5 million Americans were enrolled in college.  Most of these students were from the wealthy or upper-middle class families.  By 1947 that number jumped by more than a million enrollments.  At Stanford, veteran students were calls the “DARs,” for “Damn Average Raisers.  Over 2 million veterans went to college and another 3.5 million went to vocational schools because of the GI Bill.  Considering prior to the GI Bill less than 25 percent of Americans finished high school, the numbers are remarkable.  Veterans of the Korean War and the Vietnam War were offered educational assistance through GI Bill benefits.  The participation rate among Vietnam veterans was a 76 percent, which is about 25 percent more than the participation rate among WWII veterans.  It is too early to tell what effect the new Post 9/11 GI Bill will have on the current generation of veterans.  Investing in the education of veterans has proven to be good investment in the past.  
8 Easy Steps To Apply for college.  http://stuck-middle.blogspot.com/p/gi-bill-and-college-how-to-apply.html

The Conscience Voice of "Restrepo" Volunteers to Return to Afghanistan

SGT Pemble-Belkin

    Accidental Star of Indie documentary Film "Restrepo," current Army SGT Pemble-Belkin, volunteers to return to combat.  According to an article by Martin Kuz, In Stars and Stripes Newspaper.   Sgt. Pemble-Belkin has volunteered to leave a state-side role as a trainer at Ft. Polk, LA.  “I got tired of seeing units come through and then deploying. I felt like I wasn’t doing anything anymore,” he said. “I’d rather be back here, where the fight is, instead of sitting back there."  Today SGT Pemble-Belkin is stationed just a few miles from the Pech River Valley, where he was in 2008, assigned to small combat outpost name Restrepo.  Named in honor of their KIA platoon medic PFC Juan Restrepo.   
 
 


     The documentary, "Restrepo," has been nominated for 8 awards, to include an Oscar, and 4 wins including Sundance Film Festival.  This movie should be required viewing for all Americans.  The language is raw, but so is much of the video footage.  A platoon of soldiers fight to maintain their outpost against the Taliban in the mountains of Afghanistan.  This film takes you to their world, to what they are really thinking, and feeling......  As this group of hero's endure some of the fiercest fighting of the war.  
   


    Tim Hetherington, was the photographer, filmmaker, co-producer and co-director of "Restrepo," with author Sebastian Junger.  Tim was killed in Misrata, Libya on April 20, 2011, while covering the Libya conflict.   If there is any great lesson to be taken from Tim Hetherington’s death, it is this: war is terrible. I am somewhat of a realist, and I acknowledge that it is sometimes necessary," says  Richard Allen Smith, editor of VetVoice, in his article A valiant and fearless truth-teller:  Tim Hetherington.   The last project he completed before his death is his book Infidel.  The title Infidel is taken from the tattoo the men adopted as a badge of their comradeship. Warm, moving and full of humor, this book is a tribute to the "rough men ready to do violence on our behalf" and a provocative contribution to the documentation of war in our time. says the books description.