"A Unknown War"

The US war in Afghanistan is having its most deadliest month for the American troops, since arriving in late 2001. With over 55 soldiers killed this month, it has been a very hard toll to pay for the country, especially with no end in site. We have over 35,000 troops in Afghanistan, and another 3600 waiting to be deployed. Is it worth the money and lives? Should our government be putting this all out there to win this war? As Dan Rather quoted “wars are won with fire power, will power and staying power.” The question is, are we ready to stay in Afghanistan for the long haul?

The people we are fighting, our enemy at war, has a very strong will to fight. A country that has no education system, no healthcare or clean water and that knows nothing else but to fight as a way of living. They have the will power to continue to fight. Even with the new presidency, we still need to ask ourselves is it worth it to fight in a country where an empire tried and could never defeat the afghans. One unnamed source says that Afghanistan is unknown as “The grave yard of empires, From Alexander the Great, to the British army and over 20 years ago the afghan soviet war.”

Washington policy makers only seem to have a few options of what to do. Should we can just leave, should we be concerned with counter insurgency or counter terrorism? Unlike the soviets we don’t want to colonize Afghanistan, but to eliminate the terrorist. The tough issue is also how many more groups and people have the Taliban recruited or established. It is very tricky with Pakistan being a pathway for these groups to move in and out.

With this war going on we are seemingly getting more and more information on what is going on in Afghanistan, unlike what we saw with Iraq. President Obama stated, “Iraq took to many resources of what was going on in Afghanistan and spent on the Iraq war.” I believe that this conflict is not being talked about or even shown to the public interest as much as it should be. I believe the general public needs to be in discussion about it, rather then everything being hush. We dedicate more and more resources to a war that isn’t being won. Hasn’t history showed us of what could be the outcome? We are fighting a long waged war that may never be won and could cost America billions of dollars. We may not establish colonies or American lifestyles there, and we, as the public need to be more in the loop. The question has been ask to the men in charge of the Afghan war, if victory can be achieved, and there is hesitation in their response. Even with Washington wanting to keep perusing the war on terror, we are in for the long haul in Afghanistan.