I don’t care if you were for the war in Afghanistan or against the war in Afghanistan. I don’t care if you think we had a right to go over there or if you thought we should stay home. I don’t care if you believed the images you saw on September 11, 2001 or if you thought it was all a government conspiracy. I don’t care if you are a Blue Blooded Fighting Patriot or a Tree Hugging Contentious Observing Humanitarian. I don’t care if you supported the military complex or you have peace signs tattooed on your butt.
If you aren’t upset by images of our military weapons and equipment being used by the Afghanistan Taliban terrorists against the very people we have spent twenty years fighting with and trying to help develop a government; if it doesn’t turn your stomach to see our weapons of war being used to once again enslave young women, to rape and murder them in an effort to purge the Western Civilization from their souls; if you aren’t concerned about the potential of our young men and women of the military having to go back in an effort to bring home our non-military personnel and being faced with a fighting force which is armed with our own weapons – then you are not human.
I’m not anti-war. I’m not pro-war. I believe a country should have a ready defense. I believe in America first, but not America alone. I believed like many others we needed to go after those who were responsible for 9/11. I support our enlisted military and believe them to be some of the finest men and women on the face of the earth. I am the product of a father who spent twenty years in the military. Even though I think we should have accomplished our mission in Afghanistan and left, I believe, had our military been given the freedom to do so, they could have cleared Afghanistan of the scourge of the Taliban. In fact, I believe that they could accomplish any mission assigned if given the freedom and opportunity to do what they have been trained to do.
But there is nothing more embarrassing, disturbing, and disheartening than what we are seeing happen in Afghanistan. I have to believe that most of our military personnel are just as angry as I am to see their tools, vehicles, weapons, and efforts falling into the hands of those who have take so many lives; the lives of their brothers and sisters. I can’t imagine the hurt of those who lost loved ones fighting this war, seeing everything they died for disappearing.before their eyes.
No, I don’t not believe we should have stayed in Afghanistan. We can’t. There is a time for war to end, but I think we should have made a responsible exit. We are better than this. We should lead the world not just in military power, but as a responsible government, as honorable neighbors, and as world partners. We should have either taken or destroyed anything which could have been used against the government and the people we claimed to help. We should have maintained some kind of peacekeeping force or pushed for some UN Force to remain behind. There are dozens of parameters of our exit which should have been discussed and examined, but none of them involved leaving those terrorists the tools to make more war and destroy more lives. Or to abandon the interpreters who assisted us, the public who depended upon us, or especially the young women, to whom we have given hope of a better life.
