Where I work now is great. New Balance is a fantastic place. I can't describe it, because it makes it sound boring. But I guess if you know me, you know I am boring in the best way possible. People go in, they work, they are nice to each other, they are competent, efficient, and intelligent. It's a wonderful thing.
One of the things I miss about my old job was hanging out at lunch with a few folks. I developed a good crew of lunchmates my last few months at adidas, and it was fun. But I am enjoying equally my new lunch experience. I basically take my paper, find an empty table, and read the paper at lunch. It's really awesome. I am taking a favorite pasttime from this past year, and I don't feel the same guilt/awkwardness because I am actually in the middle of a full work-day.
Today's paper was interesting. This Afghanistan stuff is so interesting. Today's paper revealed one thing, pretty much without argument, we have absolutely no strategy or main goal that defines our "experience" in Afghanistan right now. I can't think of a good analogy for this whole thing, but for them to say, this many years in, "we need more troops, lots more troops, in order to be successful." (at this point I should describe that we still cannot get a definition of success, although Clinton did allude to what that may mean, and at the risk of making every American, on either side of the aisle, furious, I'll leave out what she said)
They need more troops. I have realized that this is just like any other workplace. The division that is responsible for kickin' Global Ass isn't talking, at all, to the division that is responsible for being responsible. Or, at least they aren't on speaking terms now. On the same page in the Times, you read an article about a country that is completely unstable, voter fraud to a completely hilarious degree. And right next to that, we have a military that is asking our President to send in more troops, and you get a feeling that nobody cares that those two things are connected.
Of course, just a few months ago, I think it was late August even, Hilary was saying they needed to stay out of the election business in Afghanistan, see where it all netted out, then we'd make our move. She didn't allude to possible voter fraud, she was speaking about it more like a proud parent waiting for their child to choose a college. But guess what, they chose chaos.
Someone on Bill Maher pointed out that we are constantly talking about these nations like they are on the verge of something great. Only if they could just do this, or do that, this one small thing and this one tiny change, then we could leave, Al Qaeda would evaporate, and we'd be a superpower. But the thing we always forget is that they cannot do the humane thing. Women don't have a say in any of this. The inhumanity of that. They are basically a 100 years behind us in that aspect. And this isn't a debatable aspect. This is 1/2 of the population having a voice. Half.
So the thing that makes me so sad is that 1.5 months ago we stayed out of the election, and that wasn't related to our military presence. But now, how many deaths later? How many 20 year olds had to see something so horrendous PTSD is the only thing they have to look forward to? So we've decided that the elections results and the presence of a freely-elected leader is completely tied to, and essentially the only factor in, whether or not we send troops?
Why do all these Presidents do this? Why can't we just get out of Afghanistan? Why do they think that this is increasing or decreasing the chances of a small group of horrifying terrorists from doing something horrible to this country? It doesn't take an entire nation or an entire border filled with angry Pakistani and Afghan people to kill thousands. It takes a few dozen, tops.
We are just in a black hole. No way out. No leadership on this one.
However, Obama has a chance. He has a chance right now, no matter what the results of the election follow-up may be, he can say, "no more troops, period." I cannot imagine the set of circumstances that would lead to that, especially when his Sec. of State is painting a picture that if we don't monitor hte borders of Afgh/Pak we are all going to die the very next day. I'll leave everyone with this thought.
We are dangerously close to Obama's legacy being the 3 following "things":
1. Grant Park, election night
2. The collapse of the economy and the Stimulus package
3. The deepening of our involvement and failure in Afghanistan
That could be it for this 1 termer...
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