Afghanistan

Apparently support for the war in Afghanistan is ebbing. I, however, support the war in Afghanistan. I didn't support us going there in the first place, but now that we're there, I think it's incumbent upon us not to run away.

How quickly the American public forgets its country's own follies. The U.S. invaded Afghanistan as we sought revenge against Al Qaeda and the Taliban. Once we ousted the Taliban and sent Al Qaeda to live pretty much untouched with our ally, Pakistan, there was a time, albeit short, when the U.S. could have made progress in Afghanistan. Success got to the heads of our leaders, though, and they got greedy and went after Iraq, effectively leaving Afghanistan to fester and stew under the ineffective leadership of Hamid Karzai, our puppet president-cum-dictator. Our very neglect of the situation in Afghanistan led to the resurgence of the Taliban (that's who we're fighting now in Afghanistan, by the way, not bin Laden or Al Qaeda). Our almost remorseless killing of thousands of civilians by errant and purposeful bombs and bullets all in the name of the "War on Terror" did nothing but instill terror in the hearts and minds of the Afghan population. Rightfully so, they don't see us as the saviors we like to think we are.

If we leave Afghanistan like we did when the Russians pulled out in 1990 (I think it was 1990 - someone check Wikipedia for me!), then we just set the entire country and the region up for more radicalism and civil war. Perhaps you remember what that led to? We can't just go into a country and wreck havoc for our own purposes and then when satisfied or losing (as the case is now) decide it's not worth it and leave. Just because we're the United States doesn't mean we can have our cake and eat it, too. We're not THAT exceptional. I'm not a foreign policy expert, so I can't tell you the strategic implications for staying in Afghanistan, but I'm smart enough and informed enough (for beginners, read this article and join me in reading this book) to believe with a degree of confidence that if we don't stay, we, the U.S., will pay a much heavier price for it in the end.

The U.S. has a moral obligation to those who have died in Afghanistan, soldier and civilian alike, to not cut and run. We have a moral obligation to the Afghan people to leave them a better place than that Hell which we helped to create. And the American public needs to look-up the definition of "commitment."