Leave Afghanistan, before it’s too late
To the editor:
In Afghanistan, the French got bogged down and left, and the Soviets really felt they had met another “Waterloo” and, after many years, also pulled out.
So why do we ask our brave men and women to do the seemingly impossible?
As I understand it, our mission in Afghanistan is to make sure the terrorists are defeated so they will not pose a threat to the security of the United States. That indeed is a worthy ambition.
But, in my opinion, we just cannot trust the Afghanistan government — that, unfortunately, has been true over the years. If we send 40,000 more troops, our desired objective — in my opinion —just will not happen. We will continue to probably make enough progress into fooling ourselves that getting rid of the terrorists is just over the hill. It just won’t be true.
In the meantime, we will continue to see our courageous and gallant men and women pay the ultimate price — and also we will continue to throw our treasure into an ever-deepening hole.
Do I have an answer? Yes. Simplistic as it is ... let’s get out of there. Admit our failures, hope we made some positive impact, but close out another Vietnam! That’s politically incorrect but humanly merciful!
AL NEWMAN
Danville
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Reader Reactions
raven - you make it sound so simple. but i believe it is not. this is not a “military” war like WWI or WWII. it will be another korea or vietnam…take a look at the soviet’s war and think about what happened with them. they had over 108,000 soldiers in place and after 9 long years, withdrew, no better off. i don’t know what the answer is, i don’t think anyone does, but just adding more boots on the ground is not going to get us anywhere other than more us casualties and a higher deficit. we’re in afghanistan militarily while china is mining one of the biggest copper mines in the world. we’re helping them to mine safely.
until we have an afghan government that will work with us (and i seriously doubt that will happen) we will never get the afghanistan people on our side to fight against terrorists.
again, the military force is not the answer.
I may actually agree with some of the folks here. I also am not certain that there is any measurable goal associated with being in Afghanistan. Look how well the Soviets did.
BRAVO, ravencottage! You speak as if you have been there! My friends and I applaud you comment, as we were there also. You are 1000% correct, and Mr. Newman has a point too—let us DO what we need to do, or pull out and let them figure out how to take care of themselves.
Thank you so much for such an outstanding comment. Please, no one attack me and tell me I am speaking in favor of “baby killing’, etc. I am not talking about mowing down innocents, I am talking about engaging the enemy forces. We helped out a lot of children, especially in Iraq as well.
Peace.
MH
Mr Newman makes a good point. The people of Afghanistan are in a real sense unconquerable. Their loyalties have always been to their local tribes and not to a central government. Trying to force a central government upon them has been a mistake.
On the other hand, this was the place that provided safe haven and training camps for those terrorists who attacked us. We do have a vested interest in seeing to it that that situation does not return. And, right now those same terrorist groups enjoy the relative safety of the Pakistan border region. Any future plans in Afghanistan should include operations against that border region….on the Pakistani side of the border. The recent bombings in Pakistan may motivate that government to finally, once and for all, address this problem. If it does not, we should seriously consider “widening this war” to include those areas. If we’re not willing to do that, then it would seem we are not willing to do what is necessary to be successful. And, if that is the case, then I agree with Mr. Newman. Get out and get out now.
Allow our military on the ground in Afghanistan and Iraq to set the rules of engagement.
raven - what do you propose the military do to win this war?
From what I understand neither the previous administration nor the current one has allowed our military to do what is necessary to win this war and that is to do whatever it takes to destroy the enemy. Instead, civilian homes and mosques continue to be used as cover by the enemy and vast fields of opium poppies along with government corruption fund the terror.
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