Our current leaders, worried that a future pacifist administration might abandon Afghanistan, have prevented this with a treaty that obligates U.S. forces to fight there indefinitely or lose credibility in international agreements.
What Afghanistan has of value is lithium, needed for computer batteries, and if the U.S. guards the lithium, the computer industry is delighted.
The rest of us thrill over touchscreens and swirling hypnotic colors but as we become old and sick, the hypnosis lifts, to reveal a peculiar problem: Modern medicine does not slow the aging process. Exciting research is being done to extend life, and discoveries are being made, but the field is not given high priority. Curiously, over the past 50 years, the best minds have been lured not into longevity research, but into computers to create online shopping, to check spelling and play songs — services of endless variety, all nonessential.
The computer industry may fuss, but we need to forget Afghanistan and pledge our resources to extend human life as our first priority. Otherwise, we can lie in our coffins with our Bluetooths, BlackBerrys, iPods and smartphones.
