Defeat in Afghanistan

A loss in Afghanistan is another example of events overtaking (best) intentions. We can't really blame POTUS. He just happens to be there at this moment. Clearly, he doesn't know what to do. Would anyone? It might be nice if someone told us the truth.

It's difficult to mesh reality with campaigning. It's much easier to promise something (anything) that will make the people vote for you. Winning in Afghanistan was one such (to my ears, unambiguous) promise. Come to think of it, there were many others involving both foreign and domestic goals. We're still waiting, Mr. President.

So far, I would say, we’ve gotten nothing for our unbridled optimism and support. Many of us have even lost jobs, homes, retirement savings or savings in general. We’ve lost our faith, M. President. We no longer think you can handle the job. Your now famously ‘fuzzy math’ has been exposed as fraud. I guess you never thought that we would see through all that; that we were smarter than what any of your ivory tower cronies gave us credit for.

What now, Mr. President? At some point you’ve got to start leveling with us; at the very least, treating us as equals; let us know in no uncertain terms what’s up and what your plans are. Can you really blame some of us for calling you a ‘Marxist’? You yourself have often enough stated that you want to redistribute our nation’s wealth. Your associations and appointees seem to be totally okay with that – some more so than others. Tell us how that’s not Marxism.

We understand how you like to play with the language. You might point out that Karl Marx has been dead for some time. Therefore, Marxism cannot be said to exist except as a vacuous but deliberate slur – like the word ‘terrorism’ (which must never be uttered again particularly as it relates to the Islamic sort). Fair enough.

All this can be argued (as long as we’re still permitted to argue); shades of meaning; what the definition of ‘is’ is. But Mr. President, we beg you, do not refer to ‘recession’ as ‘recovery’; job losses as gains (or ‘saves’); losing as winning; etc. All these are direct opposites. Not even the slowest learner in the class would fall for that.