A Far Away War

To be fair, Afghanistan is a tough problem. The Taliban is in the hills and is still a functioning force. Al Qaeda is hiding and festering in Pakistan. It's legend and message, it's decentralized cell structure and the internet make it yet a potent threat to the safety of westerners around the world. In this, the worlds first global guerrilla war, this combination of asymmetrical threats may well be our introduction to a new and deadly manner of conflict.

In the rugged hills of Afghanistan, theory is for corpses, and practical men triumph in the night. In this battle, symbolic victories are at once everything, and nothing. The perception of victory will foretell victory, and the perception of defeat will outweigh body counts. In many ways, your manner of fighting will determine how you are perceived, and that will determine your enemy's strength for the next battle. So, how do we look?

We are trying the 9/11 Terrorists as common criminals. Think of the trial as a 2 year recruitment infomercial for Al Queda.

Speaking only of an 'Exit Strategy' and without saying anything about victory, we have told Al Queda and the Taliban that we are leaving Afghanistan, and that they only have a year and a half to shoot more our soldiers. If I am Al Queda and the Taliban, I ramp up IED and ambushes to run up the US body count as much as I can because victory is only 18 months away.

In the mean time, we are sending 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan, and we are begging Europe for 5ooo more. From the Al Queda/Taliban perspective, since the new troops are not there to 'win' the war, they are simply more targets. Their mission isn't to win the war. It is to protect President Obama from criticism for not pursuing victory in the war on terror. When you think about it you realize that we are asking young men to die so people don't say bad things about the president.

If we are not there to defeat Al Queda and the Taliban, we ought to leave tomorrow. If we are not there to achieve victory over forces who threaten us, then this far away war is not worth one more American life.

Not to worry, it's not really a 'far away war'. It's a global guerrilla war. It's coming to a shopping center near you! If we don't have the guts to win there, will we have to guts to win when it shows up here?