Let me be blunt, troop surges or no, I don’t believe we have any strategy for Afghanistan and we may have no chance of actually “winning” anything. Let me be even more blunt, I don’t think we ever did have a strategy and I don’t know if we ever could have any real strategy for the long term security or stability of that nation. Republican or Democrat, Bush or Obama, the endeavor over there has been running on an empty tank of gas toward the edge of a cliff in the middle of nowhere for a long while. We are faced with either running out of gas in a desert or plummeting toward our doom.
Call me what you like, from what I can tell Afghanistan is a wasteland. Courted for centuries because of its strategic location, in a world where we can fly wherever we want, the country has about zero value other than being a great place to grow drugs and hide murderers. Oh sure, who doesn’t want a place to grow drugs and hide murderers, but that is what we have large swathes of South America for.
The problem with our war in Afghanistan is pretty simple. We went there to find the people who perpetrated 9/11 and to kill terrorists. We did a good job at first. Then we realized there is a silly little catch. We can kill terrorists as long as they are hanging out in the barren wasteland of Afghanistan. The moment they cross an invisible line into the barren wasteland border region of Pakistan, game over. So, yeah, pretty much screwed there. McCrystal or not, I have yet to hear an actual viable plan for dealing with that border over the long haul. We cannot protect our border, what the hell are we going to do in Afghanistan?
Our other objective has always been bringing order to the chaos of Afghanistan’s backward tribal system. I am sure there are some nice people in Afghanistan and I wouldn’t want to disparage them when I make this next statement but, sorry, it is true. These tribal leaders are like the sand people in Star Wars only with brutal gang rapes and honor stoning of women.
Afghanistan is a nation historically in constant conflict with no order or central authority. The people have placed their lives into the hands of drug dealers who brutally abuse them. Somehow our leaders, both Republican and Democrat, look at that situation and keep asking, “I wonder why they haven’t taken to democracy and reform?” This makes me wonder if our leaders are less than or equal to the worthlessness of the Afghanistan leaders.
The president has taken almost a year to decide what to do in Afghanistan. In that time the situation has gotten worse. He has had time to do a lot of golfing. He has had time to ram through thousand page plus legislation that appeared out of nowhere and further bankrupted our country. He has had time to run fundraisers and hang with celebrities. He has had time to play a lot of basketball. He has had time to call police racists and wade into all kinds of other domestic drama.
Now Democrats and the easily lead media are hailing him as a great deliberator for taking a year to decide what Generals probably could have walked an engaged person through in a day. Now that he has reportedly made up his mind, he won’t actually tell us his decision for another week. From the media reports I have heard it will take two more years for all the troops he will add to the theater to actually get there whenever he gets around to start sending them.
Is there a plan for Pakistan? Who knows. Is there a measurable or two for success? No idea. Will this plan make any headway into the overarching reality that the War is being influenced by much larger players *cough CHINA, RUSSIA cough* who are delightfully watching our demise? No idea.
So a year of deliberation and…? Maybe Obama will get around to answering a couple of those questions next week? Hopefully it won’t just be a series of speeches with a lot of platitudes and the only real questions coming from Code Pink while the news media giggle and fawn over their leader.
I want to “win” in Afghanistan, I just don’t know what winning actually means. I distrust Obama’s ability to run a War or make a decision that doesn’t result in having the opposite effect of what he intended, like the decisions he has made on the economy. The problem is, I have no faith in elected Republicans either and no faith that there actually is a solution in Afghanistan that doesn’t take every resource we have. So here I sit, thinking about Afghanistan, thinking no one has a REAL plan and neither do I.
Is it time to bring home the troops?
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