Enduring Commitments Abroad by Rep. Ron Paul
- From: Dubydoon@xxxxxxxxx (Booster Brown)
- Date: Tue, 8 May 2012 15:02:00 -0500
Enduring Commitments Abroad
by Rep. Ron Paul, May 08, 2012
http://original.antiwar.com/paul/2012/05/07/enduring-commitments-abroad/
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Listen to Rep. Paul deliver this address.
Last week President Obama made a surprise pre-dawn trip to Afghanistan
to mark the one-year anniversary of the killing of Osama bin Laden and
to sign a document further extending the U.S. presence in that country.
The president said, "We're building an enduring partnership. - As you
stand up, you will not stand alone." What that means in practice is that
the U.S. will continue its efforts to prop up the government in
Afghanistan for another 10 years beyond the promised withdrawal date of
2014.
To those of us who believe the U.S. should leave Afghanistan
immediately, the president retorted, "We must give Afghanistan the
opportunity to stabilize." But how long will that take, when we have
already fought the longest war in our nation's history at incredible
human and economic cost to the nation and no end is in sight?
There is little evidence of any sustained increase in stability in
Afghanistan, and, in fact, April saw the loss of 34 more American troops
and an escalation of violence and upheaval. Within 90 minutes of the
president?s departure, seven more people were killed in Kabul by a
suicide bomber. It is clear that our presence in that country is not
creating any real stability. With Osama bin Laden dead and the al-Qaeda
presence in Afghanistan virtually nonexistent, we are reduced to
nation-building in a nation where there is no real nation to build.
We should ask ourselves why Obama's trip was a 'surprise' visit rather
than a normal state visit. The reason is that after 10 years it is still
far too dangerous to travel in or out of that country. Does that not
speak much more loudly than the president's optimistic words about the
amazing progress we have made in Afghanistan?
What does our enduring commitment mean? Ask the South Koreans, where the
United States has maintained an 'enduring commitment' of U.S. troops
more than 50 years after hostilities ended. .
By some estimates, the United States taxpayer is saddled with a $40
billion annual price tag for our 'enduring commitment' to maintaining a
U.S. military presence in Korea. Polls suggest that, in particular,
younger Koreans are tired of the U.S. military presence in their country
and would prefer us to leave. The same is true for the residents of
Okinawa, who have argued strongly, and with some recent success, for
American troops to leave their island.
The Soviets believed the road to their goal for a universal form of
government ran through Afghanistan. They were also wrong and paid an
enormous price.
However, after nine years and 15,000 Soviet lives lost, the Communist
regime in Moscow realized its mistake and withdrew from that country.
The Soviet withdrawal was complete in early 1989. The Soviet Union by
that time had further plunged into economic crisis, fueled in great part
by its commitment to maintain a global empire of client states. Later
that year, the Soviet world began crashing down, with first the collapse
of Eastern European regimes and then the Soviet Union itself.
That collapse produced an economic calamity for the successor states
from which most have not yet fully recovered. It is not too late for the
United States to learn what the Soviets discovered too late, back in
1989. Mr. President: the time to leave Afghanistan is today, not in
2024.
Read more by Rep. Ron Paul
We Were Right About the Costs of War .
April 30th, 2012
CISPA Is the New SOPA - April 23rd, 2012
An Administration Gone Rogue - March 22nd, 2012
Demolishing Due Process - March 19th, 2012
Overspending on National Security Threatens National Security -
February 22nd, 2012
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