Give me a break.  So much for the “return to the old right”.  The Republican Party is still the same party which backed George W. Bush and John McCain; nothing has changed.  The following was written by Malalai Joya, a parliament member in Afghanistan:

As an Afghan woman who was elected to Parliament, I am in the United States to ask President Barack Obama to immediately end the occupation of my country.

…

In 2001, the U.S. helped return to power the worst misogynist criminals, such as the Northern Alliance warlords and druglords. These men ought to be considered a photocopy of the Taliban. The only difference is that the Northern Alliance warlords wear suits and ties and cover their faces with the mask of democracy while they occupy government positions. But they are responsible for much of the disaster today in Afghanistan, thanks to the U.S. support they enjoy.

The U.S. and its allies are getting ready to offer power to the medieval Taliban by creating an imaginary category called the “moderate Taliban” and inviting them to join the government. A man who was near the top of the list of most-wanted terrorists eight years ago, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, has been invited to join the government.

Over the past eight years the U.S. has helped turn my country into the drug capital of the world through its support of drug lords. Today, 93 percent of all opium in the world is produced in Afghanistan. Many members of Parliament and high ranking officials openly benefit from the drug trade. President Karzai’s own brother is a well known drug trafficker.

Meanwhile, ordinary Afghans are living in destitution. The latest United Nations Human Development Index ranked Afghanistan 181 out of 182 countries. Eighteen million Afghans live on less than $2 a day. Mothers in many parts of Afghanistan are ready to sell their children because they cannot feed them.

The United States went to war in Afghanistan to catch Osama bin Laden.  He has yet to be caught.  The most important question is: who are we fighting?  Our original enemy is Al-Qaeda, supposedly, but Al-Qaeda has already moved their base of operations elsewhere.  Alas, the Afghani money drain will continue to exist, and Republicans who should have already learned their lesson continue with their dogmatic, immoral and expensive ideologies.