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				Republicans and Republicans.  Never Mix the Two
					03-03-03 Originally Published on Bartcop.com  By Houston Wade
		We are still fighting wars caused by the last time we had a Republican president and a Republican congress at the same time.  Remember when that was?  No?  Let me remind you; it was the time of flag waving jingoism, Red scares, McCarthyism, the famous Kitchen Debates and Dwight D. Eisenhower.  You know, 1950's Americana.  Don't believe me? Just take a look at Afghanistan.  The whole reason we are at war in that country at all is because Ike was a selfish leader with absolutely zero foresight in foreign affairs.  In 1956 Kabul, Afghanistan held the International Trade Fair, a sort of world's fair/exposition for countries to flaunt their economic strengths and prowess.  It was during the height of the cold war so the US wanted to "out do" the Soviets with their exhibit.  To do this Eisenhower enlisted master engineer Buckminster Fuller to design one of his new-fangled, cheap-as-dirt, geodesic domes to house the exhibit.       The dome was to be easy to ship from the United States and able to be assembled within a few days using unskilled Afghani labor. Fuller's geodesic dome was the highlight of the exposition so much so that the government of Afghanistan pleaded with Eisenhower for the option to buy the dome from the US with the intent to use it as an esthetic centerpiece for Afghanistan's capital city.  Ike, being a complete wank, told Afghanistan no, and to seal his fate as our worst diplomat in history had the dome disassembled and shipped back to the States (the shipping cost more than the dome itself!). The Soviets seeing an opportunity to garner some influence in the very strategically important Central Asian country offered to build a highway for the Afghani government as a gift.  This eventually forged a solid relationship between Kabul and Moscow and constant war in the country since 1973.       A military coup seeking to sever ties between Afghanistan and the Soviets took power and created a republic in 1973. Then, in 1978 another coup, this time by pro-Soviet leftists, established powerful military and economic ties to Moscow. The Soviets a year later overthrew the Kabul leadership and installed an even more pro-Soviet regime and brought all out war in the country.  President Ronald Reagan saw an opportunity to weaken the "commies" and gave the Muhajadeen, a loose alliance of native Afghans and fundamentalist Arab transplants exiled to the region by countries like Saudi Arabia, some $3 billion in weapons and cash to fight the Soviets.  By the time the Soviets withdrew in 1989 the US had stopped sending money and support to the region and civil war broke out between factions seeking control of the government with the now infamous Taliban coming out on top.  All of this was due to the fact that the US government saw no reason to rebuild Afghanistan's destroyed infrastructure in the wake of a war that we had supported.  Needless to say, the Taliban gave refuge to Osama bin Laden (an ideological copy and a Saudi-exile who was trained by the US government during the Soviet-Afghan war) and his cohorts and they all hated the United States.  Osama, a very fundamentalist Muslim, saw the US as a threat to Islam and developed an expansive terrorist network with one goal in mind: war with the west.       Eisenhower was not just limited to Afghanistan; he screwed up in Vietnam as well.  The US educated Ho Chi Min asked Eisenhower to help him in negotiations with France to grant Vietnam its independence from French colonial rule. Ike told Ho Chi Min "no," citing that France had suffered enough in World War II and needed Vietnam to remain a political power.  This, in turn, forced Ho Chi Min to ask China (a country whom Vietnam had been at war with for over 700 years and still has border disputes with to this day) to help them gain their independence from France.  France went to war in Vietnam and because the French have become absolute pussies when it comes to fighting a war they had to turn the reigns over to the US "observers."  The involvement of the observers led to an all out war and ended with our ultimate withdrawal and left some 50,000 US and countless millions of Vietnamese dead.       Eisenhower, the policy wonk that he was, also screwed over South and Central Americas by fronting wars for United Fruit.  He instituted insanely conceived relationships with rebels in Indonesia leading to a military coup in 1965 and the ascension of President Suharto, a butcher who murdered some 400,000+ of his own people in a US backed fight for control of the country.  Ike's particular re-establishment of the Shah of Iran in 1953 set up the eventual revolution in that country and turned Iran into the "axis of evil" (I hate that term) country that it is today. The list goes on...       I have the feeling that the Bush Administration is just as shortsighted when it comes to foreign policy issues.  Add to fact that Bush has the pleasure of a Republican controlled congress this can only be a recipe for disaster. The policy decisions that are being put forth today eerily resemble those of Eisenhower's and sets in place a massive potential from which we will experience blowback in a number of situations around the world.   These range from the way Bush and his cronies treat traditional allies like Germany and France, to the little attention he is paying to actually rebuilding Afghanistan (not to mention his complete apathy towards capturing Osama bin Laden) and his desire for war in Iraq that has him being outwitted by a murderous authoritarian dictator. All in all, this does not bode well for the future generations that will have to fight a slew of wars in Central Asia and the Mid-east as a result of Bush's bunglings.
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