Iraq Veteran: Why I'm Against Obama's Afghanistan

By Benjamin Lewis, AlterNet. Posted April 8, 2009.

Even several of the Obama supporters I know cringed at his recent announcement of his ten-year plan in Afghanistan, a horrific declaration of war that boasts no objective other than training and arming a foreign military that supports the United States to protect U.S. corporate interests in Asia. Here again we see the despicable logic of building large armies in the name of peace. Perhaps more perturbing is the fact that our ‘new’ government is still insistent on abusing the rights of young men and women by duping them into military service.

As a veteran facing and refusing recall orders back into the Marine Corps, I am appalled by the notion that many support the war in Afghanistan, referring to it as the good war. As if any war is good. Still, even against their own interests, people cannot seem to see past the obvious façade that is the endless "war on terror."

Afghanistan is one of the most unstable countries in the world. Its population is diverse, its mountainous territory virtually impenetrable. The region has been sought after by outsiders for as long as there has been conquest, and not once has a force succeeded in occupying the terrain. The people of the United States look at that country as a singular entity, but in truth there are vast political differences in that region. To increase military force in Afghanistan will be as destabilizing in the region as the U.S. support for Israel has been farther west. And, as we have seen in Iraq, our enemies there will only increase.

Solutions to global problems do not reside in bombs, retribution and revenge. They grow from supporting the many peaceful causes in the region and by uprooting instead of propagating war. For our brothers and sisters in that region are people just like us. They ask for solidarity and we send in the Marines. They ask for aid and we give them conditions.

I have refused to return to military ‘service’ because doing so would be a disservice to this country. For all that money should belong to the people, and not to the military industrial complex and those it benefits. For all that money could reduce hunger and poverty and thus subvert war. Though the events of 9/11 were horrific, do we justify them by becoming terrorists ourselves? Or do we move forward, admit and amend the mistakes of our past, and set our sites on peace and prosperity for all the world?

See more stories tagged with: iraq, afghanistan, barack obama, u.s. military, marine corps

Marine Benjamin "Benji" Lewis served two tours in Iraq and was honorably discharged in 2007. Recently, he received notification that he was a candidate to be recalled to active duty. A few weeks ago at a Winter Soldier event in Portland, Oregon, Lewis publicly announced his intention to refuse reactivation from the Individual Ready Reserve (IRR).

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