The War in Afghanistan - Tough Decisions Ahead

The war in Afghanistan is now 8 years old and the United States is nowhere in beating the hell out of Al Qaeda. It is a dangerous war where the enemy is every where and has safe sanctuaries in Pakistan. It is thought that Osama Bin Laden is in the Frontier region of Pakistan and perhaps a few people in the Pakistan establishment may even know where he is.

Thus the United Sates is fighting a war with one hand strapped to the back. It does not help that the President has little or no knowledge of military operations. Hence the case of General Stanley McChrystal gets a bit curious.

The general was brought to the Afghan theater a year back to try and finish the Islamic militants. But some how he and the President Obama did not click and the generals penchant for airing his views and opinions against the civilians has landed him in deep soup.

Obama has some hard decisions to take. He has to put a general in charge of Afghanistan who understands the enemy and can fight them at their own game. Generals who talk more and don't deliver must be shown the door.

In addition Obama has the tough decision to take against the sanctuaries in Pakistan. These are the life blood of the Al Qaeda and what Pakistan thinks is its strategic depth against India. This war cannot be won till these havens in Pakistan are destroyed. The various training camps in Punjab and Pakistan Occupied Kashmir have also to be obliterated.

We should not forget that the mighty Soviet army had to bite the dust as the Islamic insurrection fueled from the safe havens of Pakistan with overt United States and Pakistan support made life difficult for the Soviets. There is no change in the situation, only the Soviets have been replaced by the USA. There is no doubt that in their zeal to defeat the Soviets the American at that time thought it fit to support the Moslem insurgent groups like Al Qaeda and Taliban albeit with different names. In real terms it is the raising of the monster Hydra and it will be tough going for the US Army.

The European powers allied with NATO in Afghanistan are already developing cold feet and would like to make an exit as early as possible. Even the UK with 10,000 troops may find it difficult to continue in case the causalities rise and victory is not in sight.

Obama has inherited a legacy of a conflict with a resurgent Islamic militarism. His choices are limited and there is a need a for bold decisions. Will he be up to the task
By Madan G Singh

War, What Is It Good For? Everything

The evolution of humanity is an iterative process of two opposing systems, the system of war and peace and similarly of slavery and freedom. As one can see, I did not take the interrelated opposites: evilness and goodness, for the evolution of humanity requires both to exist and the synthesis (our present evolutionary and technological state) was born out of this antithesis (chaos) and thesis (order).

Thus, it is not appropriate to arrogantly judge or condemn that what we subjectively perceive as right or wrong in the short term (our life span), but only appropriate to judge objectively relative to the achieved end state. However, there are rules as will be explained further on.

Thinking humans surely must ask themselves 1 very important question. How did we (humanity) reach this evolutionary and technological state? Ancient civilizations have fallen and risen, others stagnated and other ethnic groups never really emerged until recently. However, suddenly at the end of the 1600s a flame ignited in europe, which started a huge fire which continues today. Some believe that it was the effects of science and rational thinking which broke away the centuries of ignorance and cyclical life, others similarly believe that the demise of religious rule brought about the revolution. In my opinion, as scientific and insignificantly powerful religious societies existed in the past and did not manage to bloom, the combination of the above was not enough; there was one missing key ingredient: the invisible capitalist elite.

"All men on earth are equal, but some are more equal than others."

A meritocratic financial elite molded the iterative process of human evolution in the modern era. The financial system of capitalism, specifically the banking system, redirected the energies and talents of the world and guided them voluntarily or not into performing the necessary tasks which have changed the world.

Guided by the formula of war and peace (slavery and freedom) and supported by the discoveries of science, mankind has been able to continue to rise and not to stagnate or fall.

In this development, war is a necessity to create the fear which drives and motivates the common man and restructures political realities, similarly peace is necessary to soothe the soul and rebuild new realities; however, both are needed hand in hand. Slavery through debt is necessary to enforce or force people to work, for the average person does not work voluntarily and thus must continue his treadmill life. However, freedom is necessary to allow creativity and intelligent life to develop and mature, for ultimately our utopian society will be a free and intelligent society.

This select club of the intellectual and financial elite is a meritocratic club. The rules or rather guidelines are rather logical. "Rationality is man's basic virtue, and his three fundamental values are: reason, purpose, self-esteem. Man-every man-is an end in himself, not a means to the ends of others; he must live for his own sake, neither sacrificing himself to others nor sacrificing others to himself; he must work for his rational self-interest, with the achievement of his own happiness as the highest moral purpose of his life."

" Men must deal with one another as traders, giving value for value, by free, mutual consent to mutual benefit. The only social system that bars physical force from from human relationships is laissez-faire capitalism. Capitalism is a system based on the recognition of individual rights, in which the function of the government is to protect individual rights..."

Plato's secret allows man to rediscover the golden possibility: the opportunity to regain his total freedom. Plato's sexual alleviation technique has the ability to substitute sex, traditional partner relationships and thus 'eternal bonding' and endless sacrifice. Miraculously, in the 21st century, through the creation of real wealth, the common man does not have to rely on his offspring to survive. The traditional and rather unnatural bondage has apparently become unnecessary. It still will take many years for this attitude to trickle down to the masses; however, it is an apparent reality. We have been taught and bred for centuries to breed, now we have the power to live. We should use this privilege, one which has been reserved for a selected elite. And mind you, this fascination with dating schemes and constant propaganda that one can only be happy with a partner is bogus. The purpose is to keep must common people chained to a purposeless life, for real power can only come with freedom.

This is the first step: to realize your possibilities. The second is to realize the possibility of a global financial collapse and that you may only have a few years to prepare yourself financially. Uncontrollable population growth and the dark reality that this world must sustain billions of persons may result in a conflict for resources. If international law and the market cannot regulate and accommodate the tensions, a controlled war of unpredictable scale may exterminate unwanted consumers. Ultimately, humanity must survive new challenges and survive the coming conflicts. Currently, we have merged war and peace into one state; we shall see how long this will last.

The socialist days are marked my fellow inhabitants, people with substitutable jobs will be substituted, where will you be in the next few years? It is time for you to make a decision. A financial decision. All you need is the time and will to educate yourself and understand your personal finances, the possibilities through emerging markets, and to have the will undertake business risks or personal investments, which will increase your market value and put you on top.

[http://anaphlan.com] By Heinrich Von Moltke