How Not to Fight a War

Regardless of the decision President Obama makes on Afghanistan, whether to escalate or to retreat, his protracted deliberations on the issue, while viewed as professorial to some, also belies a tell of indifference or lack of resolve to others including our enemies. Afghanistan, to be fair, is a colossal mess. Mostly historic but some self inflicted. Perhaps George Bush did take his eye off of the prize for shot at bigger glory in Iraq, after the initial defeat of the Taliban, but they don't call Afghanistan the graveyard of empires for nothing. Nevertheless, the President's continued "dithering", as former VP Dick Cheney calls it, combined with the blame it on Bush ad nauseam from the White House, assists in the narrative that Barack Obama doesn't wish to fight any war, whether out of "necessity" or not, and that is the most troubling aspect of all.

I agree that it's not worth sending good people to die if all we are going to do is pay people off like we did in Irag. Let's be honest, the surge worked because we paid people vast sums of money not to try and kill us. This is the strategy, in part, that General McChrystal has proposed to win friends and influence our enemies in Afghanistan. Great program if you can print money at will, but we can't even afford our own entitlement programs in the U.S. let alone new ones for generations of Afghanis. God forbid should the money run out. Witness the return of al Quaeda in Iraq. As soon as we notified everyone that we would be leaving and taking our money with us, look who returned to the streets of Baghdad. The same will happen in Afghanistan unless we make a firm commitment to stay, and buy time.

Time to try and convince those (including Obama himself perhaps) who still may think that radical Islamists will leave us alone if only we would leave them alone. I am convinced that most of the world have yet to figure out that they too are in the crosshairs of al Quaeda and that it will take us all, in a united front, to stop them in their tracks. Witness a recent resolution adopted by the corrupt United Nations condemning defamation of religion. "Defamation of religion is a serious affront to human dignity leading to a restriction on the freedom of their adherents and incitement to religious violence," the adopted text read, adding that "Islam is frequently and wrongly associated with human rights violations and terrorism." Wrongly associated? Are you kidding me? This might be a swell resolution if it weren't for the fact that it was brought by Pakistan and other Islamic countries who feel that since 9/11, their religion has been stigmatized and persecuted for no good reason. How about 3000 for a start.

Our retreat from Afghanistan will only empower those who already view us as weak and will enable them to regroup and plan bad things under the auspices of a friendly government. I believe, as do others, that if we abandon the fight now, we will undoubtedly have to return only to face a more powerful foe in the future. And as George W always maintained, better to fight them there than here.

But even that strategy has its price. From its inception, you just knew the Karzai government was going to be a loser. The same could be said for several of our other so-called buddies in the region, like Pakistan. Sometimes you just gotta dance with them that's ugly. Even then though you have to know how to lead or else you and your partner take a horrific tumble. It's imperative that we try and establish a working government who can at least be amenable to democracy, no more corrupt than the last guy (even if it remains the last guy) (hell even we have Charles Rangel) and will not try and subvert us at every turn. Then and only then, can we at least give our soldiers a chance at beating back the enemies of freedom, eviscerating any chance for al Quaeda from ever using Afghanistan as a safe house, and putting us on a path for a legitimate exit.