Even better we should have never entered in the way we did. I support the President in many areas, but will not follow blindly. The war in Afghanistan is an example where I disagree. We should be out now.
The Afghan leaders are among the most corrupt in the world. Hamid Karzai, the president, leads a nation that is among the world's poorest. Most of the population there lives on less then a dollar a day. The literacy rate is 28%, meaning only 28% have the ability to read. It is even worse if you are a woman. That rate is a meager 10%. They live in rural villages with little or no modern convienences. They are simply, impoverished. Why? Decades of wars and the drug trade have influenced day to day living in Afghanistan, and their leaders are not looking to improve the lifes of the people anytime soon. Three million Afghans are involved in the drug trades and violent crime is rampant.
Look at the history of this country. Going back to Alexander the Great, who invaded them in 330 BC. Genghis Khan raided the Afghans in 1219 AD and it was not until 1709 that they overthrew Gurgin Khan. It wasn't long before the British arrived in the late 1870's, where the U.K. lost money and men in the attempt to defeat Afghanistan. Then in 1978 the Soviet Union got bogged down in the quagmire of the mountainous and isolated Afghan area. The United States, through Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, threw it's support behind the Mujaheddin, who's spiritual leader was none other then Osama bin Laden. The Soviets were beaten back and the amount of money and lives that was lost in Afghanistan, helped fuel the down fall of the once mighty Soviet Union Empire.
Finally in October of 2001, the United States, under the name of, Operation Enduring Freedom, entered Afghanistan and for over ten years we have poured trillions of dollars and tens of thousands of American soldiers, into the cause. The cause of what? Al-Qaeda has been forced into hiding. bin Laden was killed in Pakistan. The Taliban, which did not attack us on 9-11 has scattered, but will return whether we leave now or twenty years from now. What have we accomplished? What is our future prospects of victory? The Taliban wants to keep Afghanistan a second century country. Fine that is their decision and the decision of the Afghan people to make, not the decision of politicians and military people from America.
I want to place this war in historical perspective. We have been here for over ten years. Vietnam was nine and one half years and what results did we have from that disaster? The American Revolutionary War was over in a little more then eight years and we dictated our own countries direction with that war. World War I was five years and the second World War, the American participation was only six years. My point is this. We have invested money that should be used here at home, in this country and we see no return. More importantly we have invested lives in this and we can never be repaid for the sacrifices of so many great American men and women.
So why are we still here. In February our soldiers accidentally burned the Muslim holy book, the Koran. Last week a Staff Sergeant, Robert Bates, killed several Afghan civilians. These incidents will happen and the longer we keep our fighting people there the more it will happen. Sergeant Bales, has seen four tours of duty in Afghanistan and has seen more death and destruction then most people would ever see in a life time. He has witnessed his friends dismembered, blown up, shot and destroyed in so many ways. This is not an excuse for his actions only an explanation. More of this has and will occur. The time to end it is now.
The Afghan people have a right and responsibility to decide their fate. They can choose to live their lives in centuries old style if they choose. They have the God given ability to change or remain the same. They do not have to forcibly be moved into the twenty first century. It is time for the American politicians and military leaders to end this. The politicians want to make this a political football. the President does not want to be seen as the man that lost Afghanistan. Afghanistan is not ours to loose. The Republicans want to stay there and win the victory. What victory. We have already lost and yet our leaders are too afraid to tell us. We can get out now and start to rebuild our own country or we can stay and suffer the same results that many others have. Afghanistan is the place that empires go to die. I want us to live.
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