Thoughts for Today!

The U.S. is making a deal with the Taliban that will provide safe-saving cover for us to get our military out of Afghanistan.  So far the current Afghan government has not been a part of the negotiations.  What will happen?  We will leave and say we’ve won and the Taliban will come back to rule the country and it will be as it was before we became involved, a short 18 years ago.  Is there something I don’t understand, or does it look like there is something wrong with this picture?

Staying in South Asia, how about what’s going on in Kashmir?  The Indians have revoked part of their constitution that gives special status to Kashmir, which will make it possible to further clamp down on the predominantly Muslim Kashmiri people and open up the state to non-Kashmiri Hindus.  Remind you of something?  Like the Israeli settlements in the West Bank, started out as a small settlement here and then and became an irreversible tidal wave of people and occupation.  Pakistan is, of course, apoplectic about what India has done.  These countries have fought three wars so far.  The difference this time is that now they both have nuclear weapons they can use.  Good luck to us all.

Speaking of weapons, the breathless 24/7 talk since last weekend’s mass killings has been about gun control.  Will we or won’t we?  The people say they want some and the politicians in charge say they’re not sure.  We’ve heard this song before.  After every mass slaughter we hear it.  I can see some incremental gun control is possible.  Will anything really meaningful happen?  Not likely.  And even if it does, will it ever be possible to stop a hate-driven individual from acting out his desire to kill?  Not a chance.

Have a nice day.