Surviving Capitalism (Not) : Thinking the Unthinkable in the Aftermath of Kandahar

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

Friday, May 28, 2010

Thinking the Unthinkable in the Aftermath of Kandahar

by Paul Fitzgerald and Elizabeth Gould from Boiling Frogs.

The upcoming campaign for the Taliban stronghold of Kandahar will be the crucial test for the United States’ military and the Obama administration’s AfPak strategy. It will clearly be an epic military battle and a test of the intellectual movement for counterinsurgency within the military known as COIN. But, like the battle for Marja in February, will the battle for Kandahar be more about the “perceptions” of American victory than about real success?

And managing perceptions is extremely important in any fake democracy.

These journalists see a growing disaffection among NATO members as well as among the people in the US to continue this war. Hence the Empire's ruling class has some real dilemmas to confront.