When Steve Bannon was booted out of the White House, my thoughts turned immediately to war. As I wrote in frustration on Friday,
Bannon’s departure probably means the slim chance that the US might withdraw from “our” open-ended, never-ending occupation of Afghanistan has been foreclosed.
If we don’t win the war by ushering in a completely transformed, modernized and westernized Afghanistan, at least our children and grandchildren and great grandchildren, etc., etc., will each have. their turn.
Of course, if the fabled “Graveyard of Empires” continues to work its historic magic, maybe future generations won’t face that burden: the United States could fall … as a worldwide imperial presence. And, if our global military archipelago fails — for, say, want of wealth to throw overseas — do we have any reason to believe that our republic would bounce back?
There remains more than enough reason to work for foreign policy sanity.
Prior to his evening national address on the day of the eclipse, Trump explained what he intends to do in Afghanistan — send 4,000 more troops.
Meanwhile, Steve Bannon’s door-slapped rump did not dissuade him from tweeting out what he intends to do “on Capitol Hills, in the media, and in corporate America”:
If there’s any confusion out there, let me clear it up: I’m leaving the White House and going to war for Trump against his opponents.…
Call this the Bugs Bunny Policy: “Of course, you know, this means war!”
And considering the promises made in the President’s speech, we can amend that to “of course, this means never-ending war.”
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
