Like the war in Iraq, the war in Afghanistan has dragged on for much too long, and far too many American servicemen and women have been lost as a result. There is simply no excuse for it taking so long to achieve victory in both places given our overwhelming superiority in both the fighting skills of our personnel and the effectiveness of our equipment. When allowed to fight to win, there is no opposing force on the planet than can stand up to the United States Military.
But as I said in this post, our elected leaders and a great number of our citizens have simply lost the will to win the wars that we send our brave men and women in uniform to fight. As a nation we now stand at a crossroads in regards to the Afghan war. Commander of NATO Operations General Stanley McChrystal has requested that an additional 40,000 troops be sent to Afghanistan, and he also warned that without them the war likely cannot be won. In my opinion, it’s time for our country to either “put up or shut up”.
If we’re serious about achieving victory over the Taliban and the other terrorist entities in Afghanistan, we need to send the additional troops that General McChrystal requested, and we need to do it immediately. But we also need to remove the handcuffs that we have irresponsibly placed on our soldiers and grant them the freedom to fight the war in a way that will allow them to win it quickly and decisively.
We can legitimately debate the merits of any war, including this one, until the cows come home. But as long as we actually have troops on the ground in harm’s way, we need to give them all the tools and support they need to win, then get out of the way and allow them to do so in the most efficient manner possible. In my opinion, however noble the intention, any other strategy is both misguided and immoral.