Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Afghanistan forever
It is beginning to look more and more that Afghanistan is becoming a never ending quagmire from which there is little hope of escape. The Presidents decision to continue to send troops into that remote and distant land to try to bring about an American style democracy has little chance of success as long as the people of that country reject all foreign intervention. The Russians learned the hard way that the
warring tribes of Afghanistan answer to no one other than to their fanatic leaders. The brutality inflicted upon Russian prisoners of war was almost indescribably horrific. We continue to pour troops and supplies into Afghanistan hoping to root out terrorist groups like the Taliban wishfully believing that they will be standing by to engage us in combat when in reality they just shift their positions by moving into remote areas of other countries such as Pakistan leaving our troops to deal with ragged remnants of village resistance. Right now we are asserting that American troops are concentrating on overseeing the peaceful conduct of the up-coming elections. Yeah, right. Once that farce is completed we'll be back to trying to police the entire country and engage an enemy that will most likely have fled elsewhere; elsewhere being almost anywhere on the Asian continent. To my mind this is an endless boondoggle that will leave us depleted and hopelessly at odds with each other at home for years to come. As simplistically naive as this may sound. I advocate that we get the hell out and stay out. While I admire and respect President Obama as an honorable and decent man, I think to continue with the present policy in Afghanistan would be an excessive in folly with scant hope of success.
George Morin
Auburn, Ga.
warring tribes of Afghanistan answer to no one other than to their fanatic leaders. The brutality inflicted upon Russian prisoners of war was almost indescribably horrific. We continue to pour troops and supplies into Afghanistan hoping to root out terrorist groups like the Taliban wishfully believing that they will be standing by to engage us in combat when in reality they just shift their positions by moving into remote areas of other countries such as Pakistan leaving our troops to deal with ragged remnants of village resistance. Right now we are asserting that American troops are concentrating on overseeing the peaceful conduct of the up-coming elections. Yeah, right. Once that farce is completed we'll be back to trying to police the entire country and engage an enemy that will most likely have fled elsewhere; elsewhere being almost anywhere on the Asian continent. To my mind this is an endless boondoggle that will leave us depleted and hopelessly at odds with each other at home for years to come. As simplistically naive as this may sound. I advocate that we get the hell out and stay out. While I admire and respect President Obama as an honorable and decent man, I think to continue with the present policy in Afghanistan would be an excessive in folly with scant hope of success.
George Morin
Auburn, Ga.
