Sekhmet's Lament

It has been a while since I have spoken of the war in Afghanistan. I have not been paying too much attention, for I had not been aware that there was a timetable set to draw down troupes next year. This became highlighted recently with the incidence of the improper conduct of General McChrystal.

I knew basically that President Obama was following in the footsteps of the last two presidents, in assuming that the US has to nation build in order to fight or find the terrorist. The gives the US an out and supposedly prevents these wars from becoming like Vietnam. I am not sure if it is the Americans or the foreign policy juggernaut and the current pols that wanted these wars to have been great versions of morality plays; democracy versus communism, now, democracy versus the Islamist. I never saw nation building as a strategy to bring down Al Qaeda. I think our mission should have been strictly to destroy Al Qaeda and capture Osama bin Laden and his top cohorts and bring them to justice. I believe this should be our only purpose in the Afghanistan region. It is the United States responsibility, we were attacked. If I were a stranger observing this war I would assume that the US was protecting the Afghans and Iraqis, that the US was fighting their wars.

Taking this path, the US has put itself in less ethical position than its wants to present to its citizenry. We have lost the mission and made contracts with the devil in order to save face with the world and hope that others can contain the Islamist terrorist.