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A Loss of Will on Afghanistan
Townhall.com ^ | September 4, 2009 | Michael Gerson

Posted on 09/04/2009 6:01:26 AM PDT by Kaslin

WASHINGTON -- We are seeing the stirrings of a cross-ideological revolt against American military involvement in Afghanistan.

On the right, some who accepted the Cold War as a great moral cause view the war on terror as a bother -- even as a dangerous excuse for global social engineering. Such tinkering, the argument goes, is particularly doomed in Afghanistan, brimming with warlords both primitive and invincible. And because Afghanistan is now Barack Obama's war, no partisan motive remains to support it.

On the left, some view every conceivable war as a "war of choice" that should never be chosen. With Iraq miraculously unscathed by the attentions of the anti-war movement -- whose success in encouraging untimely withdrawal might have sparked a genocide -- Afghanistan is the next obvious target of their idealism.

The strategic importance of Afghanistan is difficult for critics of the war to deny. The events of 9/11, which began in state-sponsored terror academies there, are not yet generally regarded as a myth. The spread of Taliban safe havens in Afghanistan would permit al-Qaeda to return to its historical operating areas. This would allow, according to one administration official to whom I spoke, "perhaps a hundredfold expansion of their geographic and demographic area of operation." And Taliban advances in Afghanistan could push a fragile, nuclear Pakistan toward chaos.

(Excerpt) Read more at townhall.com ...


TOPICS: Editorial; Foreign Affairs; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: afghanistan; bho44; bhodod; cutandrun; gerson; gwot; oef; oefsurge

1 posted on 09/04/2009 6:01:26 AM PDT by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin

Afghanistan is a clustered fornication and has been from day 1. The Afghans have never been able to build a nation for themselves what makes us think we can do it for them? If we were going to fight a war, then fight it quit the meals on wheels BS.


2 posted on 09/04/2009 6:05:56 AM PDT by NCBraveheart (Somewhere in Kenya a village is missing it's Idiot)
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To: Kaslin

Pakistan is Afghanistan’s Cambodia

As long as we tie our hands by refusing to cross the Pakistani border, Al Queda and the Taliban will not lose. We need to go after AQ base camps inside Pakistan. We no longer need Pakistan’s cooperation to function in Afghanistan, since we now have access to Russian airspace for military supplies.

However, I doubt that Zero will do this.


3 posted on 09/04/2009 6:23:11 AM PDT by kidd (Obama: The triumph of hope over evidence)
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To: Kaslin

4 posted on 09/04/2009 6:35:32 AM PDT by Iron Munro ("You can't kill the beast while sucking at its teat." - Claire Wolfe)
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To: Iron Munro

I say we pull out and nuke the site from orbit...It’s the only way to be sure.


5 posted on 09/04/2009 6:49:19 AM PDT by Duke Phelan
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To: Kaslin

I never supported the war for ideological purposes. I supported it because Afghanistan was a safe-haven for the bastards who want us dead. I no longer support it not because Obama is president but because Obama as president has no will to do what is necessary to win. Get our troops home until we have a commander in chief who will not put them in harms way without the will to win.


6 posted on 09/04/2009 7:21:40 AM PDT by pgyanke (You have no "rights" that require an involuntary burden on another person. Period. - MrB)
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To: Duke Phelan
"I say we pull out and nuke the site from orbit...It’s the only way to be sure."

"Ho-ho-hold on, hold on one second.
This installation has a substantial dollar value attached to it."

7 posted on 09/04/2009 8:50:23 AM PDT by Iron Munro ("You can't kill the beast while sucking at its teat." - Claire Wolfe)
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To: Kaslin
Afghanistan: I don't care what they do, I don't care how they live, I don't care what they do with their women, I don't care what they eat, or what they grow, or what gods they pray to. I don't care how they are ruled, or by whom.

I DO care that they don't facilitate attacks against the United States, and I think our nuclear arsenal is more than sufficient to correct such behavior, should it occur in the future.

If hydrogen bombs had been used properly in December 2001, instead of Operation Anaconda, none of this would be an issue today.

8 posted on 09/04/2009 8:53:57 AM PDT by Jim Noble (I hope Sarah will start a 2nd party soon)
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To: Kaslin

It’s a difficult and complicated situation over in that area of the world. The frustrating part of it all is that probably no one can say that the situation over there has improved since we first went in 7+ years ago. A major intel chief was just killed over there this week and I doubt if we were to exit that country in the next year or so, Hamid Karzai would last more than a week alive...he would need to seek political asylum and get out of the country, heck, they probably don’t even use Afghani guards as his security over there...it’s probably all still Americans. I don’t see how we can leave now, even though we aren’t seeing any real tangible gains for us right now. Leave Afghanistan and that place will devolve into anarchy and the Taliban and Al Aqueda will move right back in.


9 posted on 09/04/2009 9:19:49 PM PDT by Valentine_W
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