But Americans scored high in a 2008 poll that ranked "Bible literacy" and we continue to be the hands-down leader in global arms sales ($37.8 billion in 2008 versus #2 ranks Italy at a mere $3.7 billion). So never mind the popularity of the FOX television program Are you smarter than a 5th grader? -- of course we are! We just put our intellectual efforts into reading the Bible and building weapons systems instead of learning trigonometry and French.
Despite this, Bill Maher, appearing on CNN this summer, accused America of being a "stupid country." Regardless of what you think of that assessment, I can't help but wonder if the White House and the Pentagon don't agree with Bill -- that we are stupid -- really stupid. After all, look at the how they talk to us.
Here we are eight years to the week that the U.S. Congress voted to authorize launching a war in Afghanistan -- the so-called "Operation Enduring Freedom" -- and to date, the only thing enduring is misery in Afghanistan, and though we don't hear about it much any more, Iraq.
Just days ago Gen. Stanley McChrystal said, "I do not see indications of a large al-Qaida presence in Afghanistan now." Our man in Kabul, Hamid Karzai, is struggling to hang on to his narrow lead in election results amidst widespread fraud allegations, and the civilian population of that country is increasingly churning in violence as more foreign (especially American) troops flood the country and with them bring more civilian deaths and instability. Going back several years, a number of diplomats and high-ranking military personnel from both the U.S. and the U.K. have suggested NATO and the U.S. are fighting a losing battle and that includes Gen. McChrystal in recent weeks.
If you have even the slightest notion that, while waging a war in Afghanistan may be difficult and unpleasant, it could still be "winnable," or if you think, as Obama says, fighting a war in Pakistan and Afghanistan "could not be more just," then take five minutes and read this article in the Guardian newspaper. It is an account of villagers in Afghanistan's Kunduz province who had to collect the bodies (or body parts) of their family members (or anyone's family members) after a NATO airstrike killed scores, perhaps as many as 90, two weeks ago. If you still think a US-NATO war in Afghanistan is necessary or to the benefit of Afghans (or even us), read the above story and ask yourself what is the true cost of war and if you have any human compassion whatsoever.
Yet here we are, nine months into Obama's season of "HOPE" and "CHANGE" and what do we get? Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Mike Mullen coming before Congress with his hand out asking for more. More money, more soldiers, more weapons...more, more, more.
As if 68,000 American soldiers weren't enough, Americans are going to be asked to stomach a request for up to 45,000 more troops and god knows how many dollars.
This means, of course, we will be asked for more time, more commitment, more (human) sacrifice and more war.
Congress, deliberately playing its role as the limp-wristed enabler, is ready to bend over and suck Mullen's toes, dropping a spare $10 billion in change on the floor for the military to scoop up. Blood-spattered Sen. Lindsey Graham [R-SC], living up to his state's proud reputation for honorable politicians, and always ready to throw his money behind the losing dog, warned with faux severity, "this is your last chance."
Sure it is. Until Christmas.
Democrats are making a few mild grumblings -- Pelosi, Murtha, Levin and Feingold are thinking about November 2010 and what they will tell their voters when just plain folks and the seasonal "anti-war movement" gurgles a few irritated burps about too many troop deaths.
But fret not Freedom-Loving Americans! Congress will certainly fork over the money and troops even if it means accelerating the "withdrawal" from Iraq, luring more foreigners to sign up with the promise of citizenship, dropping enlistment standards further, carrying out more stop-loss orders, lengthening ordinary deployments, or hiring more private contracting firms like Blackwater (renamed Xe) or the security contractors who are being investigated for taking time out from guarding the U.S. Embassy in Kabul for some late night shenanigans.
So tell me, how stupid are we -- flat on our backs, eyes closed, iPod buds firmly stuffed in our ears, thumbs rapidly punching out tweets about what a dick Kanye West is or pondering who really killed Michael Jackson as our government waves a blank check for war without end in our faces and we barely blink.
Under-educated, under-informed, disinterested and just too damn busy, lazy or indifferent; we can barely muster a voice to oppose what is surely a bad, wrong and doomed effort to exert more military control over another far-flung land.
We've done this before in Vietnam, in Iraq, and for eight years already, in Afghanistan. Yet the military brass is telling us (again), "now we've got the right plan and the right man for the job, this time things will be different."
What could be more wrong, or more stupid?
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