Afghanistan

I generally try to avoid political topics (religious topics are a different matter) but today I want to rant about the war in Afghanistan.

You all know what happened on September 11, 2001. Heck, the anniversary just passed was the first one where I wasn't greeted in the morning with "The weather on this, the Nth anniversary of the September 11th attacks, will be..." That was the day that a group of people lacking the technological sophistication to change a light bulb (no, seriously) were declared tactical geniuses who masterminded a scheme to hijack three planes at the same time. For a couple of days the media and government went on about how brilliant these people were while I yelled back at the TV that it could have been The Trenchcoat Mafia for all the skill it'd take to pull this off.

Almost immediately we started hearing from the White House and from Fox News that it must have been the henchmen of Saddam Hussein. They had no actual evidence, then or ever, but they repeated this lie all the same. Eventually, actual intelligence agencies leaked the truth. The terrorists were mostly Saudi Arabian born and raised people who were operating out of Afghanistan under the protection of the Taliban.

You may recall that back in the 80's the Soviets invaded Afghanistan and were met with resistance. We sent money, arms, and training to help support the native insurrection. With time they won and drove the Soviets out. We immediately turned our backs on Afghanistan. Billions in arms, but not a dime to help build a school or dig a clean well. It fell into chaos and was eventually pulled out by the Muslim fundamentalist group known as The Taliban. They banned TV and radio. They banned kites. They made women wear burkas and forbade them holding jobs or going to school. They blew up giant Buddhist statues since graven images violate Islamic law. Bush even gave them a few billion dollars to eliminate the opium production. Which, to their credit, they did.

There had been other calls to go to war with Afghanistan. Mostly by women's rights groups. Some from archeology buffs. But no matter how much we did (or didn't) want to invade we had one huge problem - Afghanistan is land locked. We'd have to have permission to fly through someone's air space or use their country as a military base. We couldn't get that for the lame reasons we had.

Meanwhile, back in 2001, The public raised enough of a stink that the government was forced to launch an invasion of Afghanistan. The government didn't want to, but they had little choice. And what AlQaeda had done was awful enough that there wasn't a country in the world that was gonna deny us our war. Most of the world offered up their own military to help us. So we launched a rather puny war that was won in short order.

All this time the Bush Administration was beating the drums of war for Iraq. They were no kind of threat. They hadn't done anything against us that was close to war worthy in... well, ever. But George wanted to prove something to his daddy. Daddy was former head of the CIA, a war hero, a Yale graduate, former Vice-President, and a legitimately elected President. Surely a coke addled, "recovering" alcoholic, Texas public college reject, draft dodger, and deserter who proved repeatedly that he couldn't find oil in Texas or win an election without the Supreme Court canceling the vote counting MUST know more about foreign affairs than a man like that.

Anyone paying attention knew that every claim was a complete fiction, but facts have little place when people are angry. George Jr got his war. And George learned the hard way that everything his father knew was spot on. Daddy knew what would happen if Saddam fell. So did every military strategist in the Pentagon. Donald Rumsfeld's name was used as the punchline of jokes around there.

So, we had a full commitment to a war in which there were no good guys and we were one in a long line of bad guys.

And, we had a slack ass commitment to a war in which we were unquestionably the good guys.

In one war we were seen as the occupying army who destroyed the economy, the power grid, the roads, the buildings, etc. We proved that Osama Bin Laden was right about everything he said about America. He predicted it all and was right. Saddam had kept out Al Qaeda. He was brutal about it. Any sign of terrorism in Iraq was met with nerve gas or worse. But it was peaceful and reasonably prosperous if you're not a religious extremists.

In the other war we were seen as the liberating heroes. They knew what oppression was really about. They may not like America as a concept, but as a liberating force we were awesome and welcome. Schools opened. Women could choose their wardrobe and walk unescorted once again. TVs and radios were pulled from their hiding places under the floorboards (again, really). And kites flew once more.

But, our interest was elsewhere. People who had flocked to the Army in the hundreds to fight the terrorist threat were pulled and sent to occupy Iraq. Their service was rewarded with brand new titanium limbs and/or brain damage. On the plus side, most of the Taliban and AlQaeda fighters in Afghanistan had gone to Iraq, too.

In Afghanistan we were trying to rebuild, but having trouble. Every time we announced a new school had been opened it was blown up. Poppy crops returned in strength. How well they do depends on how much of the irrigation system is controlled by the government. We rebuilt highways that hadn't seen a road crew since the 70's. Those roads are now filled with Taliban and AlQaeda checkpoints that shake down the people traveling those roads. We've eliminated most of AlQaeda in Afghanistan. Largely because they're in Pakistan now. Most of the fighting in the country is against the remnants of the Taliban.

What I'm saying is that the Taliban took control because we abandoned them in the first place. The existing government can't stand on it's own. It's propped up by the few remaining foreign military forces. If we leave the Taliban will move back in with AlQaeda right behind them. And we won't be able to get back in.

This is the war we should have been fighting for the last eight years. It's only going this poorly because we haven't been fighting it. We need to stay. We need to fight this war like we actually want, if not peace and prosperity for these people, to avoid a new den of terrorists.