by
Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS, Feb 19 (IPS) – The United States is planning to send an
additional 17,000 troops to one of the world's most battle-scarred
nations – Afghanistan – long described as "a graveyard of empires".
First, it was the British Empire, and then the Soviet Union. So, will the United States be far behind?
"With his new order on Afghanistan, President (Barack) Obama has given
substantial ground to what Martin Luther King Jr., in 1967 called 'the
madness of militarism'", Norman Solomon, executive director of the
Washington-based Institute for Public Accuracy, told IPS.
"That madness should be opposed in 2009," said Solomon, author
of 'War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to
Death.'
The proposed surge in U.S. troops will bring the total to
60,000, while the combined forces from the North Atlantic Treaty
Organisation (NATO), including troops from Germany, Canada, Britain and
the Netherlands, amount to over 32,000…
Read the full article.