You should understand why we fight

A brief background on Afghanistan is required to understand how important that country is to the security of the United States and to the stability of the Middle East.

Al-Qaeda and Osama Bin Laden; Afghanistan was the place that housed the biggest single enemy of the United States and his small band of deadly followers for years. The Taliban, the band of war lords posing as Islamic fundamentalist, took control of Afghanistan in 1996 after defeating the Mujahideen in a deadly war for territory.

This culminated in the Taliban taking over the country’s power structure and finally taking over the Afghan capital of Kabul where they established their government.

The U.S military has been in Afghanistan since Oct. 7, 2001 when President Bush sent troops into the region to remove the Taliban from power as a response to that regime harboring Bin Laden and Al Qaeda. Allowing them to live and establish terrorist training camps in the country. President Bush has been accused of doing a lot of things wrong, most of the time rightfully so, but in the case of Afghanistan he got it right.

The intelligence community had proof that Bin Laden and Al Qaeda were operating within Afghan borders and were supported by the Taliban. The “right” war might sounds like an oxymoron but it never rang more true than in the case of the war in Afghanistan.

This is the right battlefield for President Obama to focus his attention on and it was the right battlefield for then President Bush too but he neglected it for Iraq. Which we now know was completely irrelevant to the 9/11 attacks and overall U.S security.

The Taliban regime was given a number of opportunities to hand over Osama Bin Laden to U.S officials. They refused to do so on each occasion which ultimately led to the U.S intervention in the country.

Many people on the left and the right oppose or support the war in Afghanistan from an ideological perspective. Reading blogs, op-eds and listening to those on the left, many of them oppose the war in Afghanistan because they believe that the money could be better spent on humanitarian aid there and elsewhere or because they just generally oppose military intervention anywhere.

Many of those on the right support the war in Afghanistan because they believe in America flexing its military muscle whenever it can or because they like the remnants of the Bush doctrine that were left in place. Making decisions about war from an ideological perspective proves almost always to be wrong.

The 8 anniversary of the war in Afghanistan was a few days ago. On this day Afghanistan is on the brink of being a completely failed state with a government that cannot rule outside of the capital of Kabul, an insurgency in the Taliban who have reemerged in the country stronger than ever before and a $4 billion annual opium trade that has corrupted Afghan farmers and many government officials.

This is in large part due to our negligence of the country after we toppled the Taliban regime. We immediately turned our time, attention and our resources to the wrong battlefield in Iraq which had no direct or indirect hand in the attacks on September 11.

In addition to all of the hand wringing on the left and the right about the war in Afghanistan, PBS’ Frontline has aired a hard hitting documentary called Obama’s War and the current commander of U.S Forces in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal has publicly stated that he wants the troop level in the country increased by 60,000.

The President is expected to decide the fate of U.S policy in the Middle East in a week or so. Many are wondering will he pull troops out of the country or will he increase the number in the country. I think he’ll make the right decision.

A wise man once said, “I am not opposed to all wars. I’m opposed to dumb wars.” Mr. President I hope you listen to your own words and realize Afghanistan is not a dumb war.