Surviving Capitalism (Not) : Retired Army Colonel: US Will Have a Presence in Afghanistan for Another 50 Years

We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Monday, February 15, 2016

Retired Army Colonel: US Will Have a Presence in Afghanistan for Another 50 Years

Click here to access article by Steven MacMillan from New Eastern Outlook.

MacMillan follows up Abbey Martin's very revealing interview in December with retired Colonel Wilkerson who served as an National Security Advisor to the Reagan administration, important posts in both Bush administrations and was used in key assignments by them to justify imperialist policies especially in the buildup to the invasion of Iraq in 2003. It appears that he completely retired from government service in 2005 (I could not find a single source that included all of his bio). In contrast to his faithful service to the Empire that began in the Vietnam War, he has since become a major critic of past and present foreign policies of the US. Guilty conscience? Or maybe this illustrates what happens to people who are trained to follow orders from their "superiors" (ruling class masters).

In addition to Wilkerson's disclosures and criticisms from Martin's interview, McMillan contributes many linked references to other evidence which reveals the true geopolitical motivations that lie behind the continuing occupation of Afghanistan which Wilkerson believes will last another 50 years.