Afghanistan, we have forgotten you

Apparently we have forgotten Afghanistan. The major issue post-September 11 was attacking the Taliban for providing full accomodations including room service, full spa privledges and access to the pool to Al Qaeda. Then came our fearless leader's desire to protect oil and give business to his buddy, the vice president......I mean find those weapons of mass destruction that magically were never found, and invade Iraq. Afghanistan became the red-headed stepson quickly in the media. You rarely hear anything about what is happening in Afghanistan. Hopefully this means that us cramming "democracy" down their throats whether they want it or not, is producing the wanted effects, but I am guessing that it is progressing as quick as one would imagine it would in a part of the world where women are still not allowed to make any valuable additions to society.

Afghanistan finally did may some headlines today in the news where the Afghan President Hamid Karzai said that President-elect Obama promised him that the U.S. would provide more aid and assistance to Afghanistan. Seems like a good decision to help out a country that we decided needed to change, that we should help them out until one of us gives up on Afghanistan ever being a viable democratic nation.

The only downside to this promise, and I have a feeling the new administration will not care, but opposition will claim that President-elect Obama's possible ties to Islam are the only reason we are increasing our aid. This is an incredibly incorrect way to view the situation. We forced, and correctly so, the Taliban out of power. Now we need to continue to aid the struggling government to maintain control and stay away from mob issues and eventually a power grab by the Taliban. God Speed, Pres. Karzai, you are going to need it.

Why the need to appoint certain people?

I am very happy that Barack Obama is our current President-elect. I was very happy with one of the first appointments being Rahm Emanuel to Chief of Staff. But why are we happy with the president-elect who was the candidate in a campaign that did things totally different than had been done in a presidential campaign in a long time. Yet, with appointments to his cabinet it seems like he is trying to not offend people more than trying to appoint who he and his advisors think best. Why do you want Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State? She said some awful things about him just to hope to win the democratic nomination. When she failed, so should everything else in public service for her. Now we are commending her on her well-fought, personal attacks on President-Elect Obama by handing her a huge position in his cabinet. She is well suited for the position, but one of the things that should happen that after you fight a mean-spirited campaign, you should have to sit back and ride out the process for the first four years. This is not the post-Aaron Sorkin "The West Wing" where everything is hugely dramatic but everything always works out in the end. No, this is real life. Where we elect a moron to the highest post in the world not once, but twice. Where we followed the greatest non-wartime economic growth in one presidential administration to the worst economic recession since the S&L crisis, if not before then in the following administration. Unfortunately, our current economic crisis is more so dependent on the world economy than ever before and one of the things the highest elected official in this country, and the most powerful man in the world should be able to pick the best for the position and one who will follow in his lead. Not lay down insults, and now try to save face and put on the worst acting face I have seen since I went to see a friend's play of Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman where I think a salesman was killed by Joey Budafuco. The script was ripped to shreds worse than what Jeffrey Dahmer did to his lunch snack on a victims liver.

Now is a time for our President-elect to rise to greatness, and give him all the tools for him to re-craft our country and the globe into a place where the USA is respected again for the right things. It is time for all of us, President-elect, his cabinet and all his constituents to rise to the occasion and put below our petty issues and do whatever is needed to act like a phoenix and rise from the ashes. We can and should focus and doing what we can to re-build this country into something great again. We will have a face and a brain in the White House that we can all be proud of, we need to accept the responsibility that he cannot do it alone. We must all find a way to improve, and become great again.