By Donald A. Collins | 11 July 2021
Church and State
The 7/9/21 page 1 Wall Street Journal article reports dissatisfaction with this move from some in the military despite 20 frustrating years of ineffective attacks to restrain the Taliban in Afghanistan, the loss of countless lives on both sides and huge expense which added meaningfully to our burgeoning National debt.
President Biden mounted an ardent defense of his decision to end the US military involvement in Afghanistan, standing by the plan amid rapid gains by the insurgent Taliban and grim forecasts. https://t.co/nEzIA35F4W
— Captivate (@Captivate) July 9, 2021
Does the scenario sound familiar? The Korean War could be cited as a rare exception to these numerous police actions, really wars, but at least we then had some cover from other participant helpers.
But the Vietnam War with its use of Agent Orange, later offered to US farmers by Dow as safe which it disastrously was not, and other forays such as our efforts to unseat Fidel Castro, strongly suggest maximum restraint in our use of military force as opposed to our proven arrogant use of our power.
Two points:
First, we should have been long ago breaking the hold by the excessive use by the Industrial Military Complex in arms making, but the provider of many jobs across the US.
Two, these above errant adventures and others were undertaken by Presidential action, not with debate to gain US Congressional approval. Such approval has not been gained since requested by FDR on that “Day of Infamy” after Pearl Harbor was attacked by that Japanese Armada!
Where was Congress’s resistance to these unwise forays? Likely greatly influenced by our arrogance and the influence of the political fruits of the expenditures by the Industrial Military Complex on Congress and their constituent voters.
One could argue that the decline and fall of the USSR was already well underway while our manic fear of Communism was badly overestimated by Reagan’s predecessors. That greatly hyped media meeting with Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev might well have occurred with diplomacy long before as Gorby’s predecessors were presiding over a seriously faltering economy which could have done better using military money for their own social welfare reform and improvements.
Now we can clearly see in retrospect our planet’s problems with climate and the dangerous excess use of limited resources by too many humans on a finite planet can’t continue without enormous damage.
You can read about the views of distinguished experts which I discuss in my new book, “We Humans Overwhelm Our Earth: 11 or 2 Billion By 2100?” now available on Amazon.
We Humans Overwhelm our Earth: Will there be 11 or 2 billion people by 2100? New book fingers leaders' failure to discuss population. https://t.co/tSuJ5ppGB3
— Church and State (@ChurchAndStateN) July 10, 2021
In retrospect, US foreign policy might in the past often might have let been allow the threat of our nuclear arsenal and other defense armaments deter the need for costly and futile police action wars.
Could we have helped those who were under assault from USSR without engaging in those ill advised police actions like the one now ending in Afghanistan??
Understanding the costs of being policeman to the world should have by now gotten through to all of us. Helping other nations with vaccines for the pandemic and carefully planning foreign aid funding efforts which include family planning should supplant our sorry record of police actions.
Biden has done the correct thing even though the GOP’ right wingers will make certain political use of this decision as we approach the midterm elections. Even enemies worry about the escalation of more violence as even dictators face displacement.
Iran cheers U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan — but fears what could follow https://t.co/oAcknCIK8q
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) July 11, 2021
Former US Navy officer, banker and venture capitalist, Donald A. Collins, a free lance writer living in Washington, DC., has spent over 40 years working for women’s reproductive health as a board member and/or officer of numerous family planning organizations including Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Guttmacher Institute, Family Health International and Ipas. Yale under graduate, NYU MBA. He is the author of From the Dissident Left: A Collection of Essays 2004-2013, Trump Becoming Macbeth: Will our democracy survive? and We Humans Overwhelm Our Earth: 11 or 2 Billion by 2100?."From the Dissident Left: A Collection of Essays 2004-2013": https://t.co/lkC2t3E1A9
"Trump Becoming Macbeth: Will our democracy survive?": https://t.co/tl3zSD7whn
"We Humans Overwhelm Our Earth: 11 or 2 Billion by 2100?": https://t.co/TA4j7cp1tE pic.twitter.com/mH1PSnoh17— Church and State (@ChurchAndStateN) July 1, 2021
Biden defends pulling US out of Afghanistan as Taliban advances
War in Afghanistan: 17 Years Later | NowThis World
David Attenborough | “The source of all our problems = POPULATION GROWTH”
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