Strike while the iron and irony is hot to rethink Afghanistan

Good morning, Afghanistan!

The Rolling Stone article about Gen. Stanley McChrystal, "The Runaway General," is a great and rare blessing for the anti-war movement. It allows Americans to learn first-hand what the men charged with planning this war really think about their chances of victory. They have little or no hope of doing so--yet with sociopathic devotion and drudgery continue to wage it. This is what happens when the military usurps diplomacy and is allowed to think of itself as peace makers.

I am linking you to a spectacularly effective short video of highlights from it called "Rethink Afghanistan" which I urge you to watch and pass on chain-mail style to everyone you know--urging them to do the same. The only victory is to withdraw--and do so now.

http://www.facebook.com/rethinkafghanistan?akid=1150.1101779.9rBK7O&rd=1&t=3&v=app_10531514314

By the way, you should know that Michael Hastings, the author of the Rolling Stone article, is drawing heavy fire from other so-called war correspondents for not having "protected" his sources--and endangering the cosy candor the press corps has long enjoyed. This is what happens when the media is "embedded" in the army it covers and no longer free, or even cares, to report the truth of what it sees.

The truth--namely, that America can't do what the British and the Russians failed to do--has been known for nine years and rarely told because journalists were too afraid to lose their privileged eavesdropper positions. McChrystal clearly expected Hastings to censor himself--just as all the other reporters did--and that's why he felt so free to be on his worst behavior. Evidently Hastings wasn't the first to see the general so contemptuously at ease. Evidently he wasn't the first to be admitted to the general's inner sanctum of cynicism--and be expected to bring, and later use, his own gag and blind fold. He was just the first to refuse self-censorship and to report the general and his aides behaving badly--in all its shocking detail.

The real story that Rolling Stone told was about the implicit conspiracy of silence by the media. Hastings told that story by betraying the conspiracy. While that silence is still shattered, we can and must act to share the truth that was revealed with our fellow citizens. Please watch "Rethink Afghanistan" then act by helping this video go viral.

That link, again:

http://www.facebook.com/rethinkafghanistan?akid=1150.1101779.9rBK7O&rd=1&t=3&v=app_10531514314