Kabul, Afghanistan – July 2013. Taliban Forces have reoccupied much of southern Afghanistan as the shattered Northern Alliance retreated to the North. Sharia Law is in full effect as the Talibs have perfected their methods of subjugating women and torturing anyone who will not conform. Government troops that had been trained by the US Special Forces have now taken sides of either the Taliban or the various warlords. Al Qaida is constructing terrorist training camps all over the countryside and has found a fertile ground for recruiting amongst the ranks of the collapsed federal Army. The US military has effectively turned the Pakistan-Afghan border into a bombing range for Predators and other top secret military hardware while hunting down terrorists.
This scenario may happen sooner or it may happen later, but without a doubt this or something like this will take place shortly after the US withdraws from Afghanistan.
As I watched President Obama announce the deployment of an additional 30,000 troops to Afghanistan, I could not but shudder at the thought of the shattered lives that this foolish move will create. 100,000 troops is what the Russians had deployed in Afghanistan and that changed not a thing.
I have had the pleasure of meeting many of the young men and women who serve to protect us from all enemies foreign and domestic. Everyone joined for their own reason, but each one was willing to put his or her life on the line to defend the United States. It is a crime that our government cynically and without regard to their lives uses the military that defends our freedom in a careless manner.
But why am I convinced that not even a million troops will change the outcome of this? Because unlike most of my American friends, I was born in the USSR and my parents saw the horrors of the Soviet-Afgan War.
The attitude that we cannot win a ground war in Afghanistan is not defeatism or pessimism; it is simply a historical observation. Over the last millennia, no one has ever achieved any kind of military superiority or domination over Afghanistan for any prolonged period of time. We have spent 9 years and have had very limited results. Unless we annex Afghanistan and station a permanent garrison there of 250,000 troops we will hardly have a chance at accomplishing our goals.
What are our goals there?
· Capture Bin Laden?
o Even if we capture and kill Bin Laden he will only become a more powerful Martyr in the eyes of the Islamists. We should still hunt him like the scum that his is and eliminate him with one of those 50k lb bombs, buts its hardly worth sending 80k troops after him. I would also not want him on trial in the US, he does not deserve the protection of our justice system. Right to the wall!
· Destroy the Talban?
o A pipe dream. The Taliban is a permanent fixture of the Afghan political spectrum and will likely take over as soon as the last American leaves.
· Bring peace and stability to the Afghan people?
o Only someone with a truly delusional sense of grandeur and inflated self worth can think hat we can do this short of annexing Afghanistan. And that is something is so farfetched it almost as farfetched as a victory in Afghanistan.
· Build schools and instill a love for freedom and democracy?
o The Russians already did this 20 years ago and with excellent results. They already love freedom, but not the same way we define freedom. They hate occupiers( US, Russians, British, French). They will hate us more and more with every passing day we occupy their country.
Not 1 American life is worth any of these goals.
Why?
They hate us. Not for all the glorious rhetoric of President Obama, not for all the hearts and minds, not for all the schools we build, Afghans want us out, and when we are out, they will decide how to live in their freedom. And I can bet my rather expensive education that it will not be anything like what we envision for them.
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