John's Blog

Americans suffer from what I fear will be a culturally terminal disease, immediate gratification. We have been in Afghanistan for nine years and want out now. Our enemies in Afghanistan have known centuries of tribal warfare. We fight because we were attacked. They fight to preserve their way of life from the American cultural juggernaut.

It is a collision of two cultures and one must lose for the other to survive and thrive. This is similar to the battles between Native Americans and early settlers in America. A state of almost constant war existed from Pontiac’s War in 1762 till Gen. Anthony Wayne defeated the Western Confederation in 1794. It took thirty-two years to end Indian raids on the western frontier.

Most rational minds agree the last administration took its eye off the ball when it turned its sights on Iraq rather than send enough forces to deal with Afghanistan. It is easy to cast blame by saying this guy did this or said that and they were wrong. It has been reported that there is very little Al-Qaida left in Afghanistan. No Al-Qaida existed in Somalia when we went in, took casualties and left. Somalia’s lack of a central government makes it an ideal sanctuary for Al-Qaida today.

Policy debates in this country too often descend into the realm of political attacks. Both sides say the same thing, my policies are better than yours. And if, horrors of horrors, one succeeds, they will take credit.

Both sides of the isle need to unify into one message, the war against Islamic radicals will be a long, slow grind and ditch the message I have a better way than you; oh the blessing if either were brilliant. This is far too important to get into a flap over which ideology can best lead the nation, liberal or conservative. Both have made some serious blunders and proclaim some unsavory characters as leaders.

I do not believe it is a coincidence that we have been in Afghanistan for nine years and have not been attack on our soil in (oddly) nine years. I think it would be a grave mistake not to increase troop levels to secure Afghanistan. If we lose in Afghanistan, we strengthen the morale of the Islamic radicals by giving them a claim to victory. We also give them the breathing space to plan new attacks against America.