This is one of the many idiotic voices attempting to discuss our clusterfuck that is Afghanistan:
If the president turns off the spigot of American assistance in Afghanistan, he will pay a substantial price for it. He’ll be going back on his rhetoric about Afghanistan as the “good war,” a war of necessity. He will cast the withdrawal from Iraq in a different light, endow the jihadist with a public victory (which will only encourage future attacks), and make it more difficult to achieve positive change in Afghanistan as well as collect intelligence on terrorists. He may turn Hamid Karzai’s government into an adversary. He will diminish our ability to help Pakistan fight terrorists, and will likely make the U.S. less trusted in the world. But those prices will be less than the cost of sending young Americans to fight and die in a war the president is not committed to winning.
The military is doing its job in Afghanistan. It’s time the rest of the government does its job. We need to turn our attention to the failures of the nonmilitary parts of our strategy and bring them up to the standard at which our military is performing. Otherwise we will not be doing what is needed to win.
What this fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution and an associate professor at the United States Military Academy seems to not understand is that it is our military stance in the middle east that is the problem. The military doing its job? Just what would that job be exactly? Hey smart one, ever live under the constant fear of drone aircraft bombing your home? We have no business there to begin with. That IS the problem.
Karzai’s government is thoroughly corrupt. Make them an “advesary”? They just stole an election. Doesn’t that already make them an “adversary”? How the hell can a “nonmilitary” anything happen when the “government” of Afghanistan is just another dictatorship hiding behind democracy? Let’s just play your way and assume we should be there; Did it ever occur to you that President Obama is withholding funds until they can figure out how to deal with Karzai’s corruption?
And I doubt short of bombing Iran that we can make ourselves any less trusted in the world. Did you sleep through the last 8 years? The fact that we are in Iraq, in Afghanistan, and positioned in 700 other bases around the world makes it pretty damn hard to trust us. Never mind our unending support of Israel and it’s steady genocide against the Palestinians and saber-rattling at Iran.
Dumping more money into Afghanistan will fix nothing, regardless of whether it is military or nonmilitary spending. President Obama was wrong to call Afghanistan the “good war”. And you’re right, sending our soldiers to die in a war we are not committed to is a horrible thing. So bring them home! The reason we are not “committed” is because there is nothing to commit to.
You are missing the point oh smart one; We create terrorism by invading other countries, by propping up dictatorships and by torturing people in secret prisons. Bagram Airbase is the new Gitmo. Pakistan? Didn’t we back their last dictator? Why would they want to talk to us?
Fellow at Stanford huh. Stanford must not have very high standards.
Oh, and nice try using “or get out” in the title. You never mention that option once in your little rant.
just another vet 