Fantasy Governing.

I have an argument against impeachment that I have been conducting with Avedon. I do believe we must have an International Criminal Court. It needs to act, to take charge of the war criminals that have been able to take over the government here and carry out destruction in other parts of the world. We need to be part of that world, not separate from it. When political cynicism operated to 'impeach' a really good president here, the impeachment process was rendered null and void. Criminal prosecution must be instituted for the horrors this maladministration has committed against the world.

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Another excellent piece about the U.S. misdirection in Afghanistan was not published recently, and increasingly the fantasy this occupied White House projects shatters when it meets with reality.

We just can't take down a whole country and put up a Disneyland version. And we can't afford the continuing pretenses.

Time used to seem urgent back in 2001 for immediate deployment of international troops, instant democracy, abrupt opening up to market forces, and short term projects designed to show rapid results. In this rush to provide quick fix solutions and imported models, the national context and the nature of Afghan society was largely ignored. What was the use of formal, often modelled after Western institutions of democracy, when literacy levels were so high? What was the use of a rushed liberal market economy when national production was at a stand still, and the main lucrative part of the national economy, drug production, happened to be illegal and very receptive to informality? The market was captured through rampant monopoly and speculation, imports zapped up local incentives, and prices skyrocketed. When instant trade was prioritized over long term agriculture, the every day bread became tied to volatility of global food crisis and Pakistani politics. Massive and sustained investment in agriculture through irrigation and dam constructions, in job creation through public works, and in the education system are long term projects long overdue that could prevent future vulnerabilities.
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.....the ownership of the peace process is ultimately in the hands of the Afghans themselves. This may be an obvious statement but it is not enacted. Negotiations with the Taliban for example are being carried invariably both by the government and by different international actors, often in secret, sometimes along contradictory dictates, and always unclear about what is the power that is going to be shared. Shrouded in this ambiguity, peacemaking is not a national reconciliation project that can be properly owned by the Karzai government and the Afghan people.

Selling war to the American people has vastly exceeded - to the farce of government we have in power - the actuality that keeps intruding to spoil their pretty pictures. Somehow the powers of military might have kept this cabal enthralled, while failing utterly in meeting the goals they keep changing to suit their propaganda.

We must never forget that the U.S. cannot let another overthrow of its constitution happen, and cannot let these fraudulent actors sell themselves to gullible voters, and corrupted voting machinery, again.