CNN says the latest strategy to defeat the Taliban:
the use of American military funds to purchase small arms, most likely AK-47 rifles, that will be given to local Afghans, according to a U.S. military official.
That sounds like a great plan. More guns has always been a recipe for success in volatile places like Afghanistan. I say we give each and every Afghani a nuclear bomb — why not, that should keep the neighborhood quiet.
But let me get this straight: I’m supposed to unquestioningly pay my taxes including funding for an apparently limitless defense budget, even at a time where the entire country is falling apart and most communities are struggling to make ends meet. And now I’m to accept that my hard-earned dollars are going to be spent buying guns to be given to people who have suffered from too many guns for decades? It boggles the mind. Sadly, of course, Barack Obama will probably be fine with this and not rock the boat — after all, he wouldn’t want to listen to dirty fucking hippies and try some real change. Re-election time is only three years away, so he’s got to look tough and hawkish to appeal to all the hard line Democrats (that would be the ones that thought the Iraq War would be teh awesome, too) and the Republicans who only reluctantly supported teh schwartze because John McCain’s dementia was too obvious to ignore.
At the very least, could they buy these guns from some other army somewhere so there’s a net gain of guns of zero? Oh, sorry, I forgot: the arms industry has to earn a living, too.
