Phil Wilke's Blog » Politics

My view of Afghanistan

philwilke — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 00:04:03 +0000

My wife’s family has a large e-mail network of cousins, uncles, aunts and people like me who’ve married into this large, opinionated and loving family. Controversial topics discussed on the cousins network include “Okra: Love it or leave it.” Recently one of the cousins posed a truly controversial question: What do you think of President Obama’s options regarding Afghanistan policy. He summarized the policy options as followed:

1) Accept the Military’s view that what would be a fairly significant escalation in the number of soldiers and associated weaponry committed to this effort, would achieve the objectives of a stable region and an effective elimination of the Al Qaeda threat, all within a reasonable (?) time frame.

2) Acknowledgment of the virtual impossibility of ever making meaningful headway in this strife-torn region ruled by corrupt politicians and/or tribal chiefs, and initiate a controlled, gradual withdrawal which replaces military efforts with financial, technical, etc. assistance. Further military action against Al Qaeda would be limited to special forces operations, as Intelligence supports. (Perhaps best subcontracted to Israel, since they are crackerjack at this sort of thing.)

3) Reduced but continuing military involvement based on greater use of remote-controlled weaponry visa foot soldiers. The intention here would be to continue the military pressure but in ways that would not entail the loss of life and limb that full-scale military operations do, while making use of advanced weapons developed for this purpose. This concept falls somewhere between 1) and 3) above. It is part of a military initiative to reduce dependency on the foot soldier in future military actions. I believe this is the approach VP Biden has endorsed.

Several people weighed in. Below is my repsonse:

“For my first foray into the cousins network, I was hoping for a more lightweight topic, like defending people who enjoy clubbing baby seals or gay married abortionist gun rights enthusiasts…. I’m sure those discussions will show up at a later time….

“I agree that we had to root out the people who attacked us after 9/11. We got most of them and, in what I believe to be a military-industrial, politically-motivated, profit-making-for-those-in-power decision, left the bogeyman (bin Laden) alive so this country would remain at war. But as then-Sec’y of State Gen. Colin Powell said (and was excoriated by his political bosses later), when invading a country “you break it, you bought it.” We’ve broken both Iraq and Afghanistan, we need to fix them.

“We have a moral obligation to fix what we’ve broken, to end what we’ve begun. We’re not going to be able to do it with soldiers. We’re going to do it with sewers and schoolteachers and health clinics and agricultural specialists and roads and civil engineers and electricity that works all the time and the basics of functioning society that offer the civilians a better life. If you give them a better country, they’ll reject the extremists. A man with a job who can feed his family is a lot less likely to pick up a gun and point it at you.

“The Afghan government is as corrupt as they come, even moreso than New Jersey. That’s saying something. Eight years after we invaded, the Taliban still control most of the country, including the world’s most lucrative opium fields. The Afghan president’s brother is a narco-trafficker. Villages, clans, tribes, valleys have been fighting each other since, well, since forever. No US troop escalation will end regional and religious animosities that go back to the 8th century.

“It costs somewhere between $500,000 and $1 million per soldier per year to be deployed in a combat zone. We have about 65,000 troops in Afghanistan now. Obama will likely add about 35,000 more. Imagine how many schools and health clinics and roads the funding required to maintain an army that size could build. I realize this is a very Pollyanna, swords into plowshares, can’t we all just get along and sing Kumbaya attitude. But it’s also realpolitik; we simply can’t afford — in blood and treasure — to continue to do what we’re doing.

“There are some very evil people out there. Twenty of them, funded by a small band of nut jobs, attacked us in Sept. 2001. We’ll always need well-armed men and women to protect us at home and abroad. They are willing to die for us. The least we can do for them is not put them in harm’s way when it’s not necessary. It’s not necessary for them to be there anymore.

“It is necessary for the US to build a functioning Afghanistan so that the last eight years will have been worth something, that all the casualties — US military and Afghan civilians — will not have been in vain. After rebuilding Afghanistan, maybe we can begin on New Orleans.”

So that’s what I think about Afghanistan policy. Your thoughts?

Death and Taxes

philwilke — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 14:48:38 +0000

Of the twin inevitabilities of death and taxes, I choose taxes.

I spent an afternoon filling out boxes such as “Form 1120S, Schedule M-1, Reconciliation of Income (Loss) per Books with Income (Loss) per Return. Note: Schedule M-3 required instead of Schedule M-1 if total assets are $10 million or more.”

Trust me, I’m not in danger of having to use Schedule M-3 any time soon.

I’ve spent too much time at www.irs.gov. I’ve spent too much time reading instructions like:
“Enter the amount from Form 1120S, page 1, line 21. Enter the income (loss) without reference to the shareholder’s:
* Basis in the stock of the corporation and in any indebtedness of the corporation to the shareholders (section 1366(d)),
* At-risk limitations, and
* Passive activity limitations.
These limitations, if applicable, are determined at the shareholder level.
Line 1 should not include rental activity income (loss) or portfolio income (loss).”

I realize that we all need to pay our taxes to hold up our end of the social contract. I don’t have a problem with that. On balance, the federal, state, local, school, water district, sewer district, cemetery districts, and all the other taxing authorities we are in hock to use the money wisely on projects and services that add to the collective good.

We get our communal panties in a bunch – and rightfully so – when we read about taxes paying for $900 hammers, $1500 toilet seats or $10 trillion on the Iraq War.

But think about, they generally get it right: most streets are repaired, the schools teach our kids, the trash is picked up, the subways run on time, the bad guys are kept in jail, the sewers carry out the icky stuff and clean water comes out of the tap.

If the economy continues to tank and governments cut their budgets are deeply as anticipated, we’ll soon find out what it’s like to live with unrepaired streets, closed schools and legions of unemployed workers who need government-funded social services that can’t be funded.

Taxes aren’t fun, but given the alternatives, they are necessary.

F. Scott Fitzgerald was right

philwilke — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 14:53:10 +0000

“The rich are different from you and me.”

Wall Street bonuses of $18.4 billion – billion with a B – while the companies were losing zillions of dollars – zillion with a Z – and getting crajillions of dollars – crajillions with a capital C – in taxpayer bailout funds.

The Secretary of the Treasury (if this country still has any treasure) forgot to pay about $34,000 in self-employment taxes. This man will oversee the IRS. Now the nominee for Secretary of Health and Human Services didn’t pay about $128,000 in taxes for using a car and driver given to him by a prominent donor.

Remember Leona Helmsley? Owned a chain of hotels, husband owned the Empire State Building. “We don’t pay taxes. Only little people pay taxes.”

The average tax rate paid by the richest 400 Americans fell by a third to 17.2 percent through the first six years of the Bush administration and their average income doubled to $263.3 million. The 17.2 percent tax rate in 2006 was the lowest since the IRS began tracking the 400 largest taxpayers in 1992, although the richest 400 Americans paid more tax on an inflation-adjusted basis than any year since 2000.

All this brings to mind the old joke: How do you make a million dollars? Start with $900,000 and invest wisely.

Does wealth make you stupid? Forgetful? Arrogant? Or does wealth – especially long-term or inherited wealth – put a person out of touch with the great unwashed? Does a sense of entitlement kick in when your bank balance exceeds a certain point? (That point has several zeros between the dollar sign and the decimal point.) Or don’t they care?

I wish, I dream, I hope, I fantasize about having the opportunity to be this stupid!

The legacy of George W. Bush

philwilke — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 14:12:40 +0000

Katrina
The waters rose up
Burying the Big Easy
With ineptitude

Iraq
Premises are false
Intelligence was faulty
Too many were killed

Torture
With waterboarding
The Constitution was drowned
In Guantanamo

Taxes
The rich get richer
Everyone else pays for it
Bankrupts a nation

9-11
After the planes hit
We chased those who attacked us
But invaded Iraq

Top 10 Reasons Why Barack Obama Will Make a Better President Than I Would

philwilke — Thu, 25 Dec 2008 14:03:40 +0000

10. Constitutional Law. He taught it. I’ve heard of it.

9. He can use a BlackBerry. I cannot figure out something as simple as how to answer a phone call on my wife’s “CrackBerry.”

8. His wife actually wants to be First Lady. My wife grew up the daughter of a politician and wants no part – however tangential – with political life.

7. Barack has a plan to put three million people back to work. Phil likes to take naps.

6. Obama promotes wind energy. Wilke is full of hot air.

5. He’s skilled at using lofty, soaring rhetoric. I struggle to pronounce aluminum.

4. He’s not vengeful. If John McCain had said all those nasty things about me, and encouraged others to do so as well, at the end of the campaign I wouldn’t have invited him for tea and counsel. I would have cut off all funding for Arizona as punishment.

3. Obama can juggle multiple crises. Wilke often forgets his own children’s names.

2. Barack endorses a “team of rivals” concept. Phil would like to see his rivals keelhauled.

And the number 1 reason Barack Obama will make a better president than me,

He has a plan to get out of Iraq. I have a plan to get out of vacuuming the living room.