No One Asked Me But… (August 29, 2012)

By DR. LARRY MOSES

No one asked me but… Attacks on American troops by Afghan Security Forces have reached an all time high. These are the very troops we are training to defend the country from the Taliban rebels who are trying to overthrow the corrupt U.S. backed Harmid Karzai government.

While the Taliban rebels are Muslim extremists who wish to take over the government of Afghanistan and impose the rule of Muslim law, they are also the very same people we supported in their fight against the old Soviet Union prior to our invading Afghanistan in search of Osama Bin Laden. Who, interestingly enough, we found in Pakistan, another alleged Middle Eastern ally.

Bin Laden was living in the neighborhood with a major state police agency and the Pakistani equivalent to our West Point. Ironically, the Pakistani agent who made the death of Bin Laden possible is now in a Pakistani prison for treason. How crazy is the Middle East?

The president of Pakistan, Asif Ali Zadari, has closed the main supply route to our troops in Afghanistan and we still pour millions and millions of dollars into Pakistan. How crazy are we?

What started in Afghanistan as an American hunt for a terrorist quickly degenerated in support for the Harmid Karzai government as the Taliban backed Al Qaida in its opposition to American troops. The Taliban looked at the invasion of their country as an attempt to halt their rebellion against a corrupt government.

Prior to his assassination, by his own body guards, Harmid Karzai’s brother Ahmed Wali Karzai, allegedly one of the most powerful drug dealers in the world, lived a protected life style as the virtual ruler of the Taliban capital of Kandahar, Afghanistan.

General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has gone to Afghanistan to discuss the issue of our supposed ally’s tendency to shoot the Americans who are training them to defend their country against the Taliban.

This year alone there have been thirty-two incidents of Afghan security forces ambushing the American trainers. Last year there were twenty-one such events.

After discussing the issue with Marine General James Mattis and Army General John Allen, General Dempsey came up with a solution. He decreed that all U.S. servicemen are to keep loaded weapons on their person at all times.

One might wonder why a General needs to give an order to have American troops armed at all times in a combat zone. Would that not seem logical?

A Marine sergeant had a solution. He put a Marine at the rear of his men with orders to shoot the first Afghan Security Force member who appeared to be hostile.

I have a better idea. Let’s get all our troops out of this insane asylum called the Middle East. Let them kill each other and impose whatever kind of outlandish laws they wish. No Middle Eastern country is worth a single death of an American military man. It is time to bring the boys home and start using the money wasted on these people to improve the country we live in.

You want to know how to cut the debt? Stop supporting, financially and militarily, those governments that have less regard for their people than we do. I will vote for the first man who states he will withdraw troops upon his election in 2012. There is no reason to wait until 2014, when the situation will not have changed but hundreds of more American boys will be dead or maimed.

Many of those deaths will be at the hands of the very people we are attempting to train to defend the present corrupt government against the fanatical government that will take over the country as soon as we leave, whether that is 2012, 2014, or 2020.

While it is important to know when you cannot win, it is more important to understand when there is nothing to win.

No one asked me but… The Nevada Policy Research Institute lost its attempt to stop the tax initiative supported by local governmental agencies in favor of the Clark County School District. Judge Valorie Vega ruled against the Institute in its attempt to get the measure removed from the ballot in the November 2012 election.

If the people choose to accept this tax increase, they will see an increase of approximately $74 dollars a year on their home for every $100,000 of evaluation. This will net the Clark County School District somewhere in the neighborhood of $900 million dollars over the next six years.

According to the District, this money will be used to renovate old schools, buy equipment, and to build new schools.

Time for a disclosure: I am in support of the tax initiative. The District definitely needs the money.

While there are still some areas of need in our valley, the need is even greater in parts of Las Vegas. West Prep is an elementary school where students have been confined to all portables on asphalt for more years than one would like to think is good for elementary students. J.D. Smith Middle School is in need of repairs that have waited too long. These are just two examples. While the District made good use of $4.9 billion in bonds since 1998, much is still needed.

While one might disagree with the tax initiative, the tack taken by the Institute is sheer stupidity. Jacob Hafter, the lawyer for the Institute argued that the Regional Debt Management Commission violated the open meeting law when they voted to put the issue before the public.

How did they violate the law? When it was time to call for public comment, the Chairwoman said to the only person in audience, “Do you have any questions, we don’t want anyone stifled?”

When Karen Gray, a researcher for the Institute remained silent, the vote to approve the ballot issue was carried out.

Hafter claimed the Chairwoman should have said, “Are there any public comments?” Since she did not, she violated the open meeting law. Therefore, the vote should be set aside by the Judge.

I am not sure how the Judge kept from laughing long enough to rule against the Institute.

Thought of the week…Law students are trained in case method, and to a lawyer everything in life looks like a case.

– Edward Packard, Jr.