President Obama made the pitch last night that we needed to send 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan. Part of the reason, he said, was that al-Qaida trained there before 9–11 and we needed to prevent that from happening again. I understand that reasoning.
What I don’t understand is how the addition of 30,000 troops will allow us to then begin reducing the number of troops in 18 months. I mean, we’ve been fighting there for 8 years and by all accounts things are still very, very dangerous there. How can the President hope that a troop surge will allow us to withdraw in such a short period of time.
What we need, or course, is more of a commitment from Afghans and leaders in that country that aren’t corrupt. We haven’t gotten it in the last 8 years, so I doubt it will be forthcoming.
My simple question though is this: Why are we spending so much time, money and American lives fighting in Afghanistan? I know that al-Qaida began their operations in that country. But my understanding is that they have operations in as many as 20 different countries now.
What good does it do to wipe them out in Afghanistan if they just spring up in another country? Isn’t our fight against al-Qaida a global one wherever they exist? If so, should we be using all our resources in Afghanistan?
