Watch the video Rethink Afghanistan by Robert Greenwald. The whole issue boils down to the fact that we don't want the wrong people to get ahold of Pakistan's nuclear weapons. It's not about Afghanistan at all. Al Qaeda isn't even in Afghanistan. They were at one time, but they're no longer there. As one person says in the video, Afghanistan is in the position of being a hotel owner who at one time had a very bad guest, and now we're punishing the owner of the hotel whose guest is no longer there.
So here is a potential solution: since Pakistan is nominally a friend, go to the Pakistan government and ask that that they turn over their nukes to a UN commission who will then destroy them. In return the world (not just the US) could provide Pakistan with both money and protection, and Pakistan will become a denuclearized country. Then there will be no reason to stay in Afghanistan at all. If Pakistan won't hand over their nukes, we simply take them from them. In either case, the war is over. The war in Afghanistan is simply turning the Afghan people against the US as civilian casualties mount. The idea that we're there to protect their women is bullshit. Women are worse off since the US invasion.
Here is the way to fight terrorists: by defensive police and intelligence work, not by full scale land invasions by armies. You have spies on the ground in all these places so that groups like Al Qaeda can't gain footholds or even toeholds. You monitor communications. You build up defenses in the US. You position rapid deployment forces offshore. You do what is achievable, but you can never guarantee absolute security. Securing the borders in the US from incursions by anyone, terrorist or otherwise, is doable and necessary. The borders should also be secured against the importation of illegal materiel whether drugs, guns, money or otherwise. This applies to materiel leaving as well as entering the US. All ports should be secured. This will do more to protect the US against terrorism than anything else. Also the FBI and the intelligence agencies must be on the alert against home grown terrorism as well as infiltration of terrorists from outside. The philosophy of "get them over there before they come over here" is nonsense.
Still eight years after 9/11 there is no procedure or system in place to guarantee that people entering the country on student visas leave when they're supposed to. They can just stay on and become illegals. This is unconscionable. Resources in this country aren't allocated intelligently and responsibly but in accordance with lobbyists' demands. It was student visas that produced 9/11, and we still don't have a way to track them.
Our prescence in Afghanistan is only prolonging the misery of the Afghan people. They would be better off under the Taliban. The thought that we are there to help them or to liberate Afghan women is ridiculous. Women and children are dying due to US airstrikes and from disease and loss of livlihoods. Internally displaced persons are dying from disease and malnutrition. The Taliban are not Al Qaeda. They do not have an international agenda. Al Qaeda is mobile and can spring up anywhere. When groups are located such as Al Qaeda which are hostile to the US and have the ability to strike at the US, they should be taken out not by the army but by special forces who can strike quickly and leave. George Will had a piece about locating rapid deployment forces off shore which makes a lot of sense. Counter insurgency doesn't.
Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are bankrupting the US while at the same time making us less safe as we are increasing ill will towards us with every innocent civilian that is killed or displaced or dies from disease in refugee camps. If Pakistan's nukes are a threat, and I think they are, this threat should be dealt with directly and not by harming a nation that left to its own devices is no threat to the US. If the worst that happens is that the Taliban take over Afghanistan, so be it.
The recent elections in Afghanistan have been shown to be fraudulent. Why are we there to prop up a corrupt government? It's deja vu all over again as Yogi Berra said. Mission creep in Afghanistan mirrors mission creep in Iraq mirrors mission creep in Vietnam. If the Soviets couldn't "win" with 500,000 troops, what makes us think we can "win" with fewer than that? At a time of ginormous budget deficits and national debt, we can't afford this stupid war in Afghanistan. Denuclearize Pakistan instead!
