Yes We Can! Long Island 2012by Phil Heckler, October 2009
On the eighth anniversary of the war in Afghanistan I say its time to re-think US policy. Some say the success in Iraq should guide us. But what have we gained in Iraq? Yes we helped stop the violence but that was not a threat to the USA. It was a civil war between Iraqi factions for control of oil and the government. Yes the Shiite has gone from an oppressed majority to the ruling class. But the Shiite is closely aligned with Iran, our enemies for the last 30 years. The only thing we really accomplished is stopping the civil war that out invasion triggered. Getting rid of a hated dictator did not improve our national security. In fact it may have weakened our national security by stretching out military beyond it’s ability to react to true threats. Not to mention lose of life to our soldiers and the civilian populations in Iraq.
Do we want to accomplish something similar in Afghanistan? I don’t think so. We don’t want Afghanistan becoming aligned with another USA enemy such as Iran. We want to end the terrorist threat posed by Al Qaeda. That’s why we went to Afghanistan in the first place.
In 2002 we basically forced out the Taliban by siding with the warlords, the Northern Alliance. I suggest we need to forget nation building. The current government is so corrupt that it is not popular with the general public. The election remains in doubt. I suggest we again team up with the warlords. But only those warlords who will help get Bin Laden once and for all. In addition we should work with warlords who will keep out the Taliban, as they are a threat to us and to their own people. With such a strategy we can dramatically reduce our troop levels and rely on our special forces as we did in 2002. And avoid pushing Afghanistan into (un) holy alliances with others who hate us.
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