My Two Cents:
Bravery and valor on the battlefield are of no consequence if the war being fought has no just and honorable cause or purpose....There are no legitimate goals or objectives in an unjust or invalid conflict being prosecuted by force of arms and the blood of good people.
My take on the war(s) in the Middle East is simple: We shouldn't have gone in the first place and we have no business being there now...Whether the Department of Defense or the State Department agrees with him or not, the young ex-marine who resigned his diplomatic postition in protest over our continued presence in Afghanistan has it absolutely right. We should stand with him in his brave and bold move to bring attention to the fact that what we are doing in that part of the world is just plain wrong....
In the wake of 9/11, and the notion that we are seeking to bring an international criminal and his criminal enterprise to justice, we have wasted resources and lives on a manhunt that ought to have been concluded long ago.....There is no succinct or cogent articulation of the reasons why we have been at this for as long as we have, and we should not commit another American life to a nefarious conflagration that has, at best, nebulous ideological, philosophical and political underpinnings....
If we truly believe that Bin Laden is alive and being harbored in the region, we should withdraw all of our troops and issue an ultimatum in the strongest possible terms and, failing that, anihilate all of the targets where he may be hiding in such a way as to not risk another American life and then, completely and absolutely walk away from it all.
Nothing good can come from continuing to work with an illegitimate government, rogue mercinaries, drug over-lords and wasting American tax dollars and American lives....I am in full and unfettered support of our troops in the Middle East. I do not, however, accept or agree with our 'reasons' for sending them there....
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lorianne
Joan H.
Ann Nichols
Delorys Welch-Tyson
Just Thinking...
Wren Dancer
Salon.com
Comments
@Ash, Thanks for the endorsement.....
@bobbot, Precisely!
On our domestic side: So what would you do? Bring them all home at once? This is a *volunteer* army...volunteered to fight, not drafted. Before anyone strokes out I am keenly aware of the many problems that often drive people to enlist, but that has always been the case. And if we pulled out those forces and IAM NOT ARGUING we should not, I'm only presenting a case for a policy to make this happen, where shall they go. According to a lawyer who is an officer in the PA Reserves and who went to Afghanistan to help them draft their constitution and set up the Afghanistan military, the US troops that come are troops that have been promised to Kosovo, etc (some time back, you are correct) and were switched to Afghanistan. So where do these trooops go? Home? To do what? Have a reduction in force? Please understand that I am not advocating anything but the speediest withdrawal from Afghanistan but it is not enough to wring our hands and prented we are isolationists..we're not and could not be.
Internationally: There is a big hole about where development aid goes in Afghanistan. For other large conflicts/natural disasters, the UN appointed a special administrator to oversee the monies that came in and went out as well as checking the status on projects. Why not have one for Afghanistan and contribute some of the money we pay EACH WARLORD (last reported estimate was 50,000 USD a month) into the special administration fund?
Today in the NEw York Times it was reported that the Obama administration is nearing an agreement on a strategy for Afghanistan. (http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=114210259&ft=1&f=1032)
While part of the proposed strategy is focused on protecting populous areas, military officers are pushing for more troops to protect the agricultural areas that feed most of Afghanistan. I found this very interesting since the role of the military in civic actions such as guarding fields, building hospitals, schools etc is not as often used in developing countries. I"m not convinced based, arguably on a newspaper article, that this would solve the problems. Not being privy to how the troops are currently deployed in Afghanistan, my suggestion to look at redeploying current troops with an eye toward withdrawal using them in the civic action program is something worth considering (again a lot of ifs, woulds, could in there)
For anyone interested you might find the DVD Afghan Stories : Afghanistan you have seen on TV www.vanguardcinema.com
is a fascinating documentary. The second DVD is Kandahar: Journey into the Heart of Darkness which takes place on the Afghani/Iranian border.
Okay I"m going to stop now, I promise.