the impossibility of change?

Referring to the January raid, tribal chief Sayed Hazratullah Khalilyar said: "When they came, we didn't know they were Americans. We thought they were thieves. Someone fired a warning shot. And then they killed us."

Obama seems like a very bright person. Then how are we escalating military involvement in Afghanistan?
this is not intelligent, not to say inhumane.
this is alarming and disturbing.
we had hoped for change.
from an article, written one year ago, by Juan Cole, Pres. of the Global Americana Institute:

I don't know whether Senator Obama really wants to try to militarily occupy Afghanistan even more than is now being attempted. I wish he would talk to some old Russian officers who were there in the 1980s first. Of course, it may be that this announced strategy is political and for the purposes of having something to say when McCain accuses him of surrendering in Iraq.

If the Afghanistan gambit is sincere, I don't think it is good geostrategy. Afghanistan is far more unwinnable even than Iraq. If playing it up is politics, then it is dangerous politics. Presidents can become captive of their own record and end up having to commit to things because they made strong representations about them to the public.

I think Obama has a little bit of a tendency to try to fix his political problems by going overboard.

UN statistics reveals that nearly 1,118 civilians have been killed as a result of the Afghan conflict, most of them due to land and air attacks from the United States and the NATO.

Parliamentarian Shukria Barakzai says she has an innovative amendment to Washington's planned injection of up to 30,000 new troops here.

"Send us 30,000 scholars instead. Or 30,000 engineers. But don't send more troops – it will just bring more violence."

the more things stay the same

i want to admit that since the Disney store closed in Union square i have felt bereft...i know that all the items were made by third world children in sweat shops and i never bought anything in the store despite the clearance sale and the 99 cent eeyores with the purple bows on their tails and the 79 cent merrywhether fairy with the angel wings in green lame....is it because i miss my cheezy southern california roots? i suppose so...but if san fran is nothing like what it used to be, then neither is los angeles and i suppose neither is anywhere...however i happened upon this video of a new york city street in the rain and it looked exactly to me like the new york city streets i experience in August of 1970 when i stayed at the Lexington YWCA on 46th St.

it would rain suddenly, sending steam up from the sidewalk, and end as soon as it began leaving a damp mugginess and a sweet memory of momentary cool...with a hole in my shoe i proceeded with my one purchase, a pair of burgundy suede ankle strap wedgies that were surprisingly comfortable as i walked from one end of new york to the other that August. The details of why I was there involved my wish to attend Design School at Parson, my acceptance there but my inability to fund my living expenses...for young people today...there is no more YWCA, no more inexpensive options except perhaps "hostels"...round once again to my oldsters lament as to how things change...and yet there is no change in our persuasions...we are still racist, prejudiced and sexist...perhaps more than ever...and as for change..i suppose we are more backward...we have advanced backward....soon we will speak of the earth being flat...