afghanistan

i've become a little more hawkish in the months of late, but the question of afghanistan is one that seems the most impossible to resolve.

on the one hand, i feel as though we bear some responsibility to the people of afghanistan to clean up some of the messes we've let fester. i mean, we invaded that country in receipt of applause for ousting the despicable taliban. but we've gone and spent the past seven years earning its scorn by moving our resources to its more profitable neighbor, while leaving afghanistan in a catastrophic freefall.

but it also seems that a democratic afghanistan is as far from reality as my setting up a camp site on mars. and how much more money and how many more american lives are meant to be sacrificed? and to what end?

are we meant to 'build a nation'? can we sell that to an american public already growing very tired of afghanistan? (i mean, as much as i love the idea of being a part of building a nation, i question whether we are capable of doing any good in afghanistan. and i do a tad more homework than the average american, who already thinks we're spending entirely too much money on worthless ventures).

but what would happen if we just up and left?

the country is being ravaged by the drug trade and the unsavory types of folks who operate the industry. comprising 60% of its GDP, afghanistan provides the world with 90% of its opium. which essentially means that the government of afghanistan is controlled by drug dealers and thugs. not quite a recipe for success. especially when the terrorist-protecting taliban is still there, and could very well make a come back if the situation ripens to their advantage.

something that seems all the more likely so long as president karzai in charge. a weak douchey politician, karzai inspires little faith, and plays whichever side of the issue buys him the greatest political capital. right now, those are anti-americanism and friend to the opium trade.

all of this on top of the impossible terrain, the absense of infrastructure, and the political instability, though not entirely of our making, have been perpetuated by our mismanaging our occupation and warring without a comprehensive strategy.

we let the opium farms replace the cereal and wheat farms (the types of things farmers would rather be growing, but don't have the infrastructure and security enough to earn a living), we allowed the drug trade to flourish when we didn't consort with the afghan justice department, and order our troops to arrest drug dealers and destroy opium. not that our own 'war on drugs' has been a great success, but it does seem that pinching off the drugs before they consumed the ecomony mighta been a good idea.

and while maybe it's not particularly prudent to keep sending troops and nation builders over to that side of the world, can we just leave? it's so unstable. and its instability further weakens an already very dangerous part of the world. can we afford not to be there? isn't it our responsibility to be there?

isn't it?

~k

in response to your comment to my last post

dear "anonymous" -

generally, yeah, i tend to believe the president. we share the same political ideology. and i think he's a smart, educated guy with a good sense about things. i know he reads my newspaper every day and that he surrounds himself with some pretty genius people whose job it is to know this shit (who themselves read reports written by people who know it in even greater detail (more so than you or i could ever know)). and i think he's got good judgment (better than any president in a long, long, long while).

so, yeah, i doubt very seriously that the potus is going to give a speech to a joint congress, televised to the american people on every single channel, and bullshit his way through 60 minutes. i mean, the last president who did that didn't really do much for us in the end. nor did his political ideology, when it got itself pushed up against that little wall we liberals like to call 'reality'.

debate is over. america needs comprehensive healthcare reform, from bottom to top, and on every side of its ass (from prevention to tort law, and up to and through sickness (and catastrophe)). and we have to start now!

and you know what? maybe whatever this president eventually signs into law will fail. maybe he won't get it exactly right on the first try. but at least he's _doing_. and this president has a team of the best and brightest helping him figure out the best possible reform plan.

he tried to let us get ourselves there through democratic debate (learning from a grave clinton error in handing congress a pre-packaged healthcare bill). and look at what we've done. we've gone and made fools of ourselves and shown the world we really are dumb enough to've elected george w. bush twice. and now he's had to come out and smack down the entire country for the nonsense perpetuated at the expense of a real debate.

the things is, i'm too dumb to figure this out for myself, so i'm following the lead of my president. a guy who says things like, "we are not here to fear the future. we are here to shape it." and i'm kinda digging the way he wants to shape it. so my advice to you (and anyone who doesn't want to be part of a solution) is to shape up (and maybe offer a solution to toss around with your criticism) or ship the fuck out.

~k

the remains of a party

in the summer of 1948, the chair of the republic national committee, congressman carroll reece of tennessee, claimed that "there remained nothing of the democratic party but three distasteful elements: southern racists, big-city bosses, and radicals bent on 'sovietizing' the country".

in listening to the president speak tonight about healthcare reform, complete with numbers, statistics, and an inspirational kick,"that we aren't here to fear the future, we are here to shape it", i felt a surge of my own american pride. especially when he handed an
opposition-sans-a-solution its ass on a silver platter.

which brings me to the three distasteful elements of what little remains of the republican party today: racists, rich white men, and radicals bent on jesusizing the country.

~k

the great (re)discovery

no matter my geographic circumstance, i am a california girl. i live on the upside of beautiful, almost all the time. always on a journey, i'm ever seeking knowledge, friendship, inspiration, enlightenment, and love. and i'm lucky to find all of the above all around me. i am intrigued by surprise. i see miracles every day. i savor my solitude with the same fervency i love a really good party. i dare to fail greatly. most of all, i am a believer. and i believe i am here to change the world.

~k

support

dear friends - that you stand by me, support me, and believe in me - even when my own doubts make me question how much i believe in me, is the reason (and with you the reasons) i live as beautifully as i do. and that i have such faith in goodness. thank you. my love is yours eternal.

~k

the indestructible part

caution: this post is not for the weak at heart.

my next door neighbor, we'll call him "schneider" (cuz he's my mr. fix it, and lucky for me (and him) that the only its he can fix are the sort i have) has been gone for_ever_, so sometimes i visit his facebook page to poke around and see what he's up to. a while back, i found this quote on his page, 'only to the extent that we expose ourselves over and over to annihilation can that which is indestructible be found in us'. (btw, i know that the period technically belongs inside the quote (which should probably look like this, "), but it's illogical, and i therefore refuse to follow that dumb rule).

and i've been on pause ever since.

i've been flaking on plans because i can barely fight my need for intensely quiet solitude. i go to work, and i _work_. then i go home to absorb thousands of pages of books, newspapers, wikipedia. and i think. sometimes to music, sometimes on my reformer, and sometimes just sitting in a silence interrupted only by the faint sounds of the city at the bottom of the hill, passerbys on the music box steps, and the creatures of nature stirring about these hills (including this one fucking woodpecker outside my window, 'peck', 'peck', 'peck'ing away at the ass crack of dawn every single day that makes me wish i had a bb gun).

where i've been, where i am, where i'm going, what i'm doing, what i'm meant to be doing. how it all goes together. and how i've been through hell, not just in the crash and living with that scar, but in love and in living with that scar. and i wonder, what if i haven't quite found what's indestructible in me? what if there's worse yet to come? i mean, tough me plays it off as though i got this. but real me. real me is a big pussy, just like all the other democrats, and real me wonders if it's worth it to take the chance (oh, and real me is pretty awesome at avoiding ever getting to that bridge).

there is absolutely not one single part of me that believes the rest of my life will be anything less than extraordinary. i am here to make the world a better place, and i am and will have an amazing time figuring out how and doing just that. but it doesn't mean i don't have doubts about things, feel frustrated with the pace of change, or sometimes feel lonely, or wish that there was a little less uncertainty in my next year.

it's not all peaches and cream to be so open and ready to surrender to whatever life has next in store for me. cuz it ain't happening so fast. and i am doing my best to be patient, keep my faith, be more accepting of real me, and enjoy this journey, but it's hard. i'm anxious, i'm ready, and i feel like i'm spinning my wheels in limbo, when there is such greatness stirring about me and within me. it's just hard sometimes.

but i know that '[s]he that can have patience, can have what [s]he will', and it does help me keep the faith.

~k

groundhog day

as this healthcare debate goes on (and on and on and on and around and around), there's one side (this week's line of bullshit drawn by a senator from utah who looks my age times three, and seems about as in touch with reality as i am in kindergarten curricula) that makes no sense. and then there's my side, acting like pussies.

'zat sound about right?

~k