The Ghost of LBJ

I'm not sure why I wrote this, maybe it's because I'm a little worried and have not seen too much about this in the news. But I guess it's something that should be talked about and I'd love to hear everyone's thoughts.

Why LBJ, you ask? Recently I watched a special on our 36th president and I began to see some similarities between him and President-Elect Obama.

LBJ was a president I knew almost nothing about. About the only thing I knew of LBJ was that he was the president who started the Vietnam War. That’s pretty much it.

But he was more that that. He was actually a pretty damn good president. He had his faults, but what president hadn’t? Sure, there were some questionable results in his bid for Congress. And he had a one-track mind and could bully anyone into seeing things his way. But at his heart, he wanted only what was best for Americans. And in fact passed more of Kennedy’s proposed legislation than Kennedy. He out-Kennedy-ed Kennedy.

When LBJ was re-elected President in 1964, he won by a landslide. The whole country loved him. But he came into an America that was in some pretty bad shape. Unemployment was up, poverty was reaching critical levels and segregation and civil rights were tearing at the fabric of the country’s soul. But LBJ was ready for the fight of his life. He was ready to take on these insurmountable challenges. He was born to be President. What he wanted for the country was nothing less than an agenda that would include: aid to education, disease prevention and control, Medicare, urban renewal, conservation, a fight against poverty. This was all done in the name of bringing about what he and President Kennedy called, The Great Society. A vision of America where no one lived in poverty, everyone had access to an education, and no one, no matter the color of his or her skin would be treated less equally and be denied the right to vote.

But behind the promise of this brave new world was an insidious threat, Vietnam. Soon, this was the war that would define Johnson’s Presidency and consume him. It was an inherited conflict that bloomed into a war that would take the lives of thousands of American soldiers. And though he LBJ managed to get through Congress far-reaching legislation like Medicare, the Civil Rights Act and The Voting Rights Act that would have deep impact on our culture, his plans were cut short by Vietnam. Here was a man who wanted nothing more than to be the ‘great father’ of every American. As president, he had the power to lead, to act and take us further towards a far better country. But the tragedy was that his legacy would forever remain…Vietnam.

Now, fast-forward to today. President-elect Obama. A man voted in with ecstatic welcome by, well…at least, half the country. He enters an arena plagued with crises. He faces challenges that are unprecedented; two wars, a collapsing economy, threats to our national security, unemployment, global warming, failing health policy. And those are the ones we know about. I’m sure he has plans for all of them, for he is the man we look to for promise and yes, hope.

But…what isn’t being talked about is what lies waiting in the wings. Something that both Noam Chomsky has recently talked about and Senator Bob Graham has just published a report on entitled, “World at Risk.” It is a threat that lives in the Peshawar region, an area that lies between Afghanistan and Pakistan. It is the threat of an ongoing war there could prove to be Obama’s Vietnam.

For those of you who don’t know what’s happening with that “other war,” I will explain. When the United States, along with its allies, invaded Afghanistan in 2001, we drove the Taliban out of Afghanistan. We never caught Osama Bin Laden, but we at least defeated the Taliban. That’s what we understood, because that’s what we were told. The war was essentially won. As far as was understood, our troops were there because we still had to find Bin Laden and there were small pockets of resistance that we just needed to clean up. That’s what we understood, because that’s what we were told.

Well, not exactly…we never really drove the Taliban out of Afghanistan. Yes, we drove them out of the major cities, but like Bin Laden, they went into hiding in the mountains. More specifically, they went into hiding in the Peshawar region. The thing about the Peshawar region is that it has withstood every invading army since the days of Alexander. No one can conquer this unbelievably harsh country, not the Russians, not the British and we can pretty much say, not the Americans either. With its mountainous and rocky country, it can provide perfect hiding for anyone who wants to disappear.

Which is exactly what we couldn’t make the Taliban do...disappear. Instead, they went into hiding and regrouped. In fact, they’ve regrown and taken over the valley. Al Qeada grows along with the Taliban. Hundreds of Muslims pour into the region everyday to join the cause against the infidels. Madrasahs up and down the region create an army of future extremists. The Taliban raid the American troops and run back to Pakistan where our troops aren’t allowed. Sound familiar? The same tactic was used by the Vietcong in Cambodia.

And though the Pakistanis are our allies in the war against terror, they will not allow American troops on their soil nor American aircraft into their airspace. As what happened in Cambodia, I’m sure that hasn’t stopped us from entering Pakistan to chase after those raiding parties, but the fact of the matter is, we are fighting blind in that region.

The other side of this equation is Pakistan. The Pakistani government has pledged to support us in our fight against the Taliban and Al Qeada, but the truth of the matter is, Pakistani intelligence (the I.S.I.) has admitted that they have Taliban leaders on their payroll. And why is that? Because of India. They, as I hope you know by now, hate India. India is our ally. If America is instrumental in establishing a new government to replace the Taliban in Afghanistan, the likelihood is that the new Afghani government will tolerate, if not accommodate, an Indian presence. The Pakistanis will do everything they can to prevent Afghanistan from becoming a pro-Indian nation. They are stuck in the middle of both India and Afghanistan so they want to make sure that doesn’t happen, by, oh I don’t know, blowing up the newly established Indian embassies in Afghanistan.

Which is exactly what they did. The Pakistanis deny that they have anything to do with it, but the intelligence community is pretty much in agreement that the bombings were carried out by Al Qeada with the help of the I.S.I. In other words, Pakistani intelligence has done what they can to protect the Taliban so that they can do the dirty work that the Pakistani government can’t. And that includes assassination.

In December 27, 2007, Benazir Bhutto, former prime minister of Pakistan and the first and only woman prime minister that Pakistan has ever had was assassinated by a suicide bomber. She was running for office and the president at the time, President Musharaff, was her opponent. She was a reformist and promised the destruction of the Taliban and its leaders if she were to take office. That never happened, obviously, because she died. Al Qeada claimed responsibility, but amid speculation that President Musharaff had a hand in her death, he resigned. And so with the President of 10 years out of office and Benazir Bhutto murdered, a power vacuum emerged.

Up in the North, in the Pashewar region, the Taliban is gaining strength. There are seeds of Civil War being sown. The very real threat that the Taliban could take over the broken government in Pakistan becomes an even grimmer reality.

But that’s not the nightmare scenario…the nightmare scenario is that Pakistan has nuclear weapons.

That reality may never happen (and we all need to pray that it doesn’t). But if it does…then God help Obama who will have to take all our current crises and throw them out the window. He gets to experience what our 36^th President underwent. Someone who, despite his good intentions, is bogged down by a war he has inherited. And if that happens, well…God help us all.