What If We Fail in Afghanistan?
What would be the consequences of a second Islamic Emirate? My scenarios here are intended analytically, as a first-draft straw-man forecast:
The Nineties Afghan Civil War on Steroids
Momentum for a Taliban Revolution in Pakistan
Increased Islamist Violence Against India, Increasing the Likelihood of Indo-Pakistani War
Increased Al Qaeda Ambitions Against Britain and the United States
Phi Beta Iota: This is a classic status quo “Empire as Usua”l question. It is not only the wrong question, trying to answer it perpetuates the insanity that begot the problem in the first place. Steve Coll, author of Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001, is a very smart, very well-connected mandarin with The Washington Post as his home base. The question that We the People should be forcing the White House and Congress to answer is this:
What If We Stop Spending $1.3 Trillion a Year on War, and Instead
Spend At Least a Third of That on Peace?
We never ask a question we cannot answer. The answer is clear-cut: we create a prosperous world at peace. See the two graphics below the fold.
