Seeking A Homeland

Déjà vu all over again?

Last night I was watching CNN and the reporter was saying (my paraphrase) that there is not a natural affinity between Al Qaeda and the Taliban. Al Qaeda is driven by an ideology of Islamic fundamentalism, but the Taliban is more concerned with Pashtun nationalism. Because they have different agendas, he said, if the Taliban were to control Afghanistan again they might not really provide a safe haven for Al Qaeda, since that would draw international opposition down on them.

Now, I spoke out to people I know about the evil of the Taliban a long time ago. In 2000 and 2001, before 9/11, I alienated some people by urging them to support RAWA, the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan. I still don't think the Taliban are a bunch of nice guys. However, the idea of U.S. troops being sent to quell an indigenous movement for national self-determination makes me uneasy, even if the nationalists would blow up ancient statues of the Buddha or take an allegedly adulterous woman out to the soccer stadium and shoot her in the head. It's a little too reminiscent, for me, of the rationale used to send troops to Vietnam.

Then, this morning, I was watching the 2005 documentary Howard Zinn: You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train on Link TV. Howard Zinn is a true  American hero. The movie had a clip of Hubert Humphrey speaking in defense of the conduct of the war in Vietnam. He was (my paraphrase again) explaining the inevitability of collateral damage because the enemy would surround itself with innocent people. He said, "Your government does not bomb women and children." Once again I heard echoes of Vietnam. Isn't that exactly what our government says now when a drone takes out a few militants but also kills innocent people around them? How well did that turn out 40 years ago? How will it turn out now?

There may be substantive differences that I'm ignoring, and if so I would welcome anyone who wants to point them out to me and convince me of them. I really would. I am committed to supporting this president, and he was very clear throughout last year's campaign that he would step up the war in Afghanistan. Still, I'm getting uneasy about this war.

Get even: addendum

I see in my email this morning that the Progressive Change Campaign Committee has an online petition calling for Wilson's censure.

Don't get mad, get even

News sources and blogs are afire with reaction to South Carolina representative Joe Wilson's disgraceful heckling during President Obama's speech tonight. Amazingly, to me anyway, there's already a paragraph about the incident on the Wikipedia page for Wilson. There have been nearly 200 revisions to the page in the last few hours and it "is currently disabled due to vandalism."

What makes this even stranger is that today Wilson's son Alan launched a campaign for South Carolina Attorney General, a position that may call for even more propriety than the office of U.S. representative does.

This has certainly been a busy day for SC pols. Earlier, in a move that Wilson must also have known about when he went to the Capitol to hear Obama's speech, the SC GOP caucus delivered a letter signed by 60 of its 73 members asking Mark Sanford to resign. Since that chamber only has 124 members and all 51 Democrats will most likely agree, that makes it nearly unanimous.

Between that Wikipedia page and this CNN story I think I can see why Wilson did this. He may claim, "This evening I let my emotions get the best of me when listening to the President's remarks," but I suspect it was a calculated political tactic. Rob Miller, the Democrat who pared Wilson's share of the vote in 2008 down to 54%  (it was 84% in 2002) is running against Wilson again in 2010. Wilson is worried, and he needs to do something to energize his base, which must be demoralized after Sanford's debacle made a mockery of the religious right's so-called "family values."

I propose that we not just get mad, though. Let's get even. The way to let Joe Wilson know that his behavior is totally unacceptable is to help Rob Miller. We can donate to his campaign at http://robmillerforcongress.com/ or on his ActBlue page.

I got the ActBlue link from Suburban Guerilla, who had the exact same idea I had. I promise you, though, that I came up with it before I saw her post. She found a good video clip of this incident from TPM, too. Later I saw the same general idea on Daily Kos.