The Deep Insight

Over the last year we have seen the war in Afghanistan go from bad to worse and our political leadership following suit. No one seems to know what to do about Afghanistan which is shocking considering the amount of time that the United States and NATO has been in the country.  Let us look back at what we have accomplished in the last eight years. This is pretty simple because it isnt’ much.  The Taliban was toppled and Al-Qaida base for international terrorism was shut down.  These are the only two goals that have actually been achieved in Afghanistan since 2001.

 Since then Afghanistan has been marred by violence, corruption,  fraudulent elections  and ineffective governance.  With this as the current reality on the ground our leaders in Washington have to ask themselves is it worth it?  Eight years, thousands of dead and wounded soldiers and billions of dollars spent this war would make this a easy decision right?  It should be clear as day that the strategy of going about this mission piecemeal is not working. Sending 68,000 into harms way in a country the size of Afghanistan is woefully irresponsible and borders on criminal negligence in my opinion. To me this shows a utter disrespect of the troops on the ground by former President Bush and President Obama.

President Obama has two option, either send the necessary troops to fully do the job in Afghanistan, or withdrawal from Afghanistan period. Its either one or the other.  I would be inclined to pull out troops because after eight years the Afghan government is riddled with corruption from top to bottom, the police force is not existent, and the Afghan people have lost faith in their government if they ever had it in the first place.

I think the United States and the rest of the international community has to realize that we cannot force the Afghan people to support a government they deem corrupt and ineffective.  Propping up this regime is a waste of our  blood, treasure and time.  I say let the Afghan decide for themselves what type of society they want to live in.  They have a right to self determination just like anyone else in the world.

  If the Taliban comes back into power so be it, as long as we monitor Al-Qaeda activity in the country if it returns we can take action.  This might be too far out of the box thinking but if the Taliban came back to power wouldn’t it bring the leaders of the Taliban and possibly Al-Qaeda out from hiding?  From there appropriate action could be taken i.e predator drone attacks or some sort of special forces mission to capture them.  I think this idea is so crazy it might work!  Let me know what you think guys and gals.