It’s time

OK. The Accursed One is dead. Cool. Now, can we please GTFO of Afghanistan?

I got home Sunday night, May 1, turning on the tube to catch up on the sports junk of the day, and seeing the crawl that was such big news even ESPN had to take note—Osama had now crossed over into past tense. And I thought, OK, dandy, but too bad it doesn’t mean something more than revenge and closure.

Well, that was hasty, kneejerk thinking. Why doesn’t it mean more than those much-awaited but ultimately unsatisfying emotions, when considered in the context of the overall health of the United States? At this point, now that the so-called head of the snake has been lopped off, why are we hanging around with 100,000 troops engaged in yet another shitty suckfest of a quagmire that has instantly become far less important to our national security? At this point, are you going to seriously put forth the proposition that our forces in Afghanistan are needed?

If you do, and I happen to be drinking a beer at the time, you better stand back, because you’re gonna get sprayed with all the suds that blow out of my nostrils. I don’t give a damn if Karzai teams up with the Taliban to form some sort of new coalition. Fine. Let ’em. So what? That’s their trip. Nation-building has been our unfortunate trip as of late, and all it seems to yield are mind-boggling incidents of unhappiness, tragedy and wealth-loss. I don’t, at this time, give a damn about Afghanistan’s fate as a nation. Come to think of it, I don’t give a damn about Libya, either. Sure, if these countries are gonna be ruled by chaos and jerks, it’s bad news for many of their people. I understand, and it’s a shame. But goddammit, there are shitheads and suckwads running amok all over this tortured effing planet of ours, and at this time, the only nation I’m interested in building is America.

In case you haven’t noticed, the United States isn’t exactly sailing along in fifth gear right now. We got a little work to do here on the home front. I’m not saying that our departure from Afghanistan is going to enable all that work to get done, but it sure as hell won’t hurt. So yeah, how about a little good ole-fashioned Isolationism for a refreshing change? Anybody around here remember Isolationism?

We don’t have to vanish from Afghanistan. Leave a base of 20-30,000 guys in Kabul, loaded up with predator drones. Those things kick ass. But let’s not screw around. The killing of Osama is our obvious cue. Exit, stage left! Now! And to this end, support Howard Dean’s Democracy for America, which has already launched a campaign to put on the heat.