A War of Absurdity

I'm not too shy about expressing my lefty political opinions but I do try to be respectful and not in-your-face about it. Several weeks ago I read an opinion piece by Robert Scheer on Afghanistan that pretty much took my breath away, and I feel compelled to share it.


It's a relatively short read. I pass it along to you for your consideration, asking you to bring to bear your collective wisdom as husbands or wives, mothers or fathers, brothers or sisters, sons or daughters, as taxpayers, as stewards of the world we will pass along to our descendants.

Please click over to the article, here.  The money quote from Scheer passes along a recent statement of the president's national security adviser.  This is former Marine Gen. James Jones, concerning the size of the terrorist threat from Afghanistan:

"The al-Qaida presence is very diminished. The maximum estimate is less than 100 operating in the country, no bases, no ability to launch attacks on either us or our allies."

So tell me again how a war that looks to have no end in sight is making us safer?  The Afghans are fighting us just because we're there and we remain there just because they're fighting us....

Couldn't we just say to the Afghan government and the Taliban opposition that we recognize that we, collectively, are stuck in a loop?  To break the gridlock we have a bold proposal that will leave both the US and the Afghans far better off.

To wit, we're declaring a unilateral cease-fire.  And in lieu of fighting we are taking those combat dollars to dig wells, immunize children, and build roads and bridges. 

Perhaps I am naive but I do speak from the knowledge base of decades of work for the DOD, and say as I hold a grandchild on my lap, by God, we can do better than this.  We have to do better than this.