TheRealNews
December 02, 2009
Pepe Escobar: It’s not Vietnam, said Obama, but neither it is what he said it is. President Obama’s widely expected surge in Afghanistan is the “gift” US taxpayers received right in the middle of the worst unemployment crisis since the Great Depression. The Pentagon for its part got (more or less) what it wanted – for now. As much as Obama stretched himself to stress this was not a new Vietnam, he trapped himself by conflating al-Qaeda with the Taliban and rehashing the same “war on terror” rationale – all clad in the glorious robes of a “noble struggle for freedom”. Pepe Escobar argues the most significant point about Obama’s West Point address is what he omitted. He simply ignored the current, high-stakes New Great Game in Eurasia, on which the Pentagon is focused like a laser, and of which Afghanistan is just a peon.
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Obama’s “empire”
Obama says US is not an empire as he sends 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan
Reese Erlich is a freelance journalist and author from the United States. His books include the 2003 best-seller, Target Iraq: What the News Media Didn’t Tell You, 2007’s The Iran Agenda: The Real Story of US Policy and the Middle-East Crisis, and his newest release Dateline Havana: The Real Story of US Policy and the Future of Cuba. He has produced many radio documentaries, including a series hosted by Walter Cronkite.
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Pt 2
What would an alternative strategy for Afghanistan look like? Paul Jay with Reese Erlich
see
This Is Absolutely Insane! Michael Moore Responds To President Obama’s Afghanistan Speech
The World’s Least Powerful Man – The Obama Puppet By Paul Craig Roberts
Rep. Kucinich: Congress has responsibility, too + Rep. Maxine Waters + Kucinich vs O’Reilly
Barack Obama’s Speech on Afghanistan Policy + transcript
Dandelion Salad 
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