The Progressive War in Afghanistan

As some of my progressive friends have known all too well, I have been completely against the ulilateral Bush policy in Iraq since the beginning. So much senseless killing, and without United Nations approval to boot. That's what really drives me up the wall!

The Progressives gave us such great tools for bringing peace and democracy throughout the world: The UN, NATO, and international diplomacy. When Clinton (despite the rightwing) stopped genocide all throughout Yugoslavia he knew how to get it done: with NATO helping along, with other countries sharing the burdens!

After 9/11, we new progressives saw great chances to create more social awareness and a better social democracy at home. But we also knew there was a rightwing in Afghanistan even more rightwing than Bush (if you don't believe me, check out this article by Sam Harris, a progressive (he's against religious intolerance) who has written a lot about how nonprogressive some Muslims in other countries actually are). Since we saw that there was a lot of progress to be made there, we saw that the war abroad could do much to promote women's rights, minority rights, and other humanitarian causes. This was one reason the Russians tried to do their own reforms in Afghanistan, but unfortunately the rightwing in America couldn't stand to see the Russians challenge the supremacy of unbridled capitalism that the United States has come to represent.

The unilitaral Bush policy has almost squandered this opportunity to bring progressive values to Afghanistan and Iraq. They don't even do body counts in Iraq, showing their amazing incompetence at anything.

But in Afghanistan, NATO reported that they counted zero casualties in their Monday assault. They are paying attention! (Surprise surprise. In progressive Europe, there's more concern for people's lives and good government than you'll find in the corporate Bush family.)

It looks now like NATO actually killed 30 civilians, which is unfortunatey but this underscores a good point. At least NATO cared!

Isn't it obvious it's time to start withdrawing troops from Iraq and putting them where the real war is in Afghanistan? Or, more to the point -- maybe it's time we put NATO in charge of the Iraq War?

The rightwing will hate it, because they hate engaging with the rest of the world, but it would go far in repairing our relations with the rest of the world. And at least NATO does body counts and is trying hard to do a good job, not just give all the money to oil companies and Haliburton, the way Bush is.

War is hell, but it is a good policy tool, but not in the hands of the "Get the Government Off My Back" people. We need a new progressive internationalism, and no more of the brute force and jingoism of the Bush people. Teddy Roosevelt would not approve of such jingoism, so neither should we.