Originally posted at TomDispatch.
Here’s last week’s good news on America’s war fronts: finally,
there’s light at the end of the tunnel!
From one end of the Greater Middle East to the other, things are looking up
for Washington. A U.S. Air Force drone struck for the first time in Baluchistan
province and took out the leader of the Taliban with two
Hellfire missiles (whereupon the Pakistani government denounced Washington
for violating
the country’s sovereignty). The action was taken, President Obama later
announced, as part of “our longstanding effort to bring peace and
prosperity to Afghanistan.” (Admittedly, you may not have heard much about
such peace and prosperity recently with fierce fighting raging
on Afghan battlefields, the Taliban gaining
ground, the government in its usual pit of corruption, and the country maintaining
its proud position as the uncontested
global leader in the production and sale of opium.)
Soon after, the president paid a historic visit to Vietnam and finally put
to bed memories of a disastrous American war there in the only way conceivable
– by ensuring that American arms and munitions would once again be allowed
to flow freely into that country. And while he was at it, he sternly
rebuked China (without mentioning it by name) for its actions
in the waters off Vietnam. “Nations are sovereign,” he said,
“and no matter how large or small a nation may be, its territory should be respected.”
On the other side of the Greater Middle East, U.S. Green Berets were photographed
in northern Syria engaged with Kurdish rebels in fighting aimed at someday retaking
Raqqa, the “capital” of the Islamic State. Several
of those soldiers were wearing
the insignia of the Syrian Kurdish People’s Protection Forces, or YPG
(which the Turkish government considers a terrorist outfit), even as the Pentagon
continued to insist
that theirs was a non-combat role. In other words – in the good news category
– those boots, whatever the photos might seem to indicate, were not actually
on the ground. Meanwhile, some genuinely upbeat news arrived in the midst of
a little distinctly out-of-date bad news. Members of the U.S. team now conducting
the air war against the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq told
New York Times reporter Eric Schmitt that, despite thousands
of air strikes, their predecessors had essentially botched the job, thanks to
“poor intelligence collection and clumsy process for identifying targets.”
Fortunately, they were now in charge and the results were stunning. The Islamic
State was finally being hit in its pocketbook, where it truly hurts, damaging
its “ability to pay its fighters, govern, and attract new recruits.”
“Every bomb now has a greater impact,” reported U.S. air war commander
Lieutenant General Charles…