Sam Smith
Like most media, the Progressive Review has repeatedly defined what has been going on in Iraq and Afghanistan as wars. But two pieces of news in the past twenty-four hours have raised questions is to whether this is still wise.
- The US has revealed it is spending hundreds of millions on airbases in Afghanistan that won't even open until, according to the Obama schedule, the war will be supposedly winding down.
- Vice President Biden said in a speech that the Obama administration is "following President Bush's proposal for a long-term relationship with Iraq,"
These items remind us that war is only one part of what we are up to in Iraq and Afghanistan. The primary nature of our presence is the occupation of what now amount to two colonies of the United States. The use of the military will ebb and flow, and the administration's name for it will be adjusted with new deceits, but the reality is that we will remain the illegal occupiers of two colonies: Iraq and Afghanistan.
It is perhaps time that we change our language as well, so we are no longer hostages to the government's public manipulation of its troops and their role. Yes, we must end the war but we must end the occupation as well.
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