The Afghanistan Decision

If you've been reading or watching the news in the past couple weeks, you can tell me just as well as anyone else that there is a debate going on about the War in Afghanistan. You have advisers, secretaries, generals, and the Vice President, all saying different things to President Obama. Some are proposing that he send more troops, some are proposing a lesser position in Afghanistan and a larger role in Pakistan. Not many are saying that we should leave Afghanistan all together and, as a Progressive, I must say I agree with that. We must have a force in Afghanistan.

Today, we found out that one adviser believes anything less than 25,000 more troops in Afghanistan means assured failure. In the report, three main problems are outlined: the government is seen as illegitimate, there are terrorist posts across the border into Pakistan, and there is a lack of military resources. All together, this simply increases the problems we see in Afghanistan.

While I may not be a top general within the Obama Administration, I still feel that it is necessary to have some type of opinion on this subject. I must say that the Biden Plan-- that is, a larger role in Pakistan while a bit of a smaller force in their neighbor-- is very appealing to me. I have always felt that Pakistan was the major problem; certainly, there is really no objection to the belief that Usama Bin Laden, if he is still alive, crossed the Hindu-Kush Mountains-laden border between Afghanistan and Pakistan and set up shop in the hills within Pakistan. I larger role in the destruction of terrorist havens in Pakistan would be a way to put more pressure on the al-Qaeda factions there.

There is one more note here that we should take to heart. Whatever we do, we must be very careful to make sure that it does not cause more destruction to the citizens living there. The way that someone is brought into a terrorist group is through hate. Anyone whose brother was killed, anyone whose house was blown up, anyone who lost their belongings and family in a fire due to an American-made missile will be easily recruited by a group calling for the death of the perpetrators. Our first mission must be to help the citizens in any country realize we are there to help us and them. Until this happens, the circle of terrorism will continue to roll, and we will be in deep trouble.