Strange night, I dreamt I was blind (must’ve had my eyes closed) and on the streets of a city in Italy, maybe Portofino, I don’t know, I couldn’t see it.  Birds fought for scraps in the street, children begged parents for a treat,  old boats bobbed and slapped in the waves, the wind whistled lightly past discount sale signs, and banners and awnings, flowers smelled fragrant and spaghetti carbonara wafted in the wind  as coffee was poured and cups tingled with spoon applied, and a man on a phone, because no one talks like that in person, complains in Italian, at least I think it’s complaining, I hear the word stupido. I am grief stricken, at thought I cannot see, but then I start to see with my ears  and with scent and I fill in the blanks the boats look colorful, the birds are white with orange beaks, the paint with pastel colors is peeling, and the man on the phone must have an apron to match the sounds of flapping, and the coffee smells oh so good…  oh well, I woke up and can see just fine… and I’m happy for this small miracle.

Logic and War

Much lately is made about the desire and plans to pull troops out of Afghanistan, and although any troop reduction is objectively good for the troops that go home and their families.  It is objectively more dangerous for those that remain.  It seems that it would be sensible to re-examine why we are there and if we have accomplished our mission.  Eighteen years ago, this month, we were viciously attacked and 2,996 people were killed, over 6000 wounded, and some 1200 or more are dealing with cancer as a result of exposure to toxins released in the attacks.  Additionally, another 3500 US and Coalition Forces have been killed and many times this number of injured due to actions in Afghanistan.  Tragically,  31,000 or more civilians were also killed in Afghanistan.

Nearly 40,000 people died, because of a war started by Al-Qaeda, which attacked potent symbols of American and Western civilization, including the financial center of New York, vis-a-vis the people that worked in the World Trade Center; the military power symbol and the people in the Pentagon, and the democratic freedoms, represented by the Capitol or the White House (the target of United Flight 93).  The passenger heroes of Flight 93 were the first to fight back.   The targets clearly represented the Western world financial strength, military strength and political freedoms.   The Taliban, gave Al-Qaeda the space and support to launch these attacks, and operated in violent support of their philosophies, and actions.  They cheered the ability of Al-Qaeda to extend attacks to the West and America in this dramatic way.  This day of 11 September 2001, America and indeed the West’s civilization, freedoms and strength were attacked by a 14^th Century philosophy and mindset.

We went to war against the perpetrators of this horror, not as a police action to punish criminals, but ostensibly to disable their ability to bring their war and terrorist actions to our shores.   We took away their ability to operate, train, and finance, and pushed them into a defensive existence.  More than 120,000 of them have died, and yet they fight on, under a flag of Taliban, or ISIS or remnants of Al-Qaeda, but they fight on.

War is the result of failed diplomacy.  It is an extension of power.  It is a necessary capability of nations that choose to live in freedom and to protect their national interests.  It is horrible but a necessary and logical extension of capability to ensure the existence of our country, our beliefs, and hard-earned freedoms.

I propose that this war was a justified and logical response to the 9-11 attacks.  The subsequent sacrifices of American’s, and those of our coalition partners have been tragic, but necessary and logical.  Ending our engagement in Afghanistan should happen only when we are certain that the philosophies that survived, and the remnants of terrorist cells have no further room, or fight in them to raise up and attack us again.  However attacks continue and even have intensified by the Taliban, Al-Qaeda and ISIS in Afghanistan, in the last few weeks:

• Civilians were attacked – a bomber at a wedding kills 63 in Kabul two weeks ago
• City of Kunduz was attacked for third time yesterday,  with 30 government soldiers killed
• 3 US service members were killed in August

Logically we should be there as long as there is a credible threat. Presuming it is impossible to eradicate the threat, our mission should then be to contain this threat in the most efficient means possible.  We are negotiating, which is good. But are we successfully ensuring our safety?  Seems to me that attacks are ongoing, and there is no intent by our enemy to restrain themselves.   Logic suggests to me, as we pull our troops out, we are not ending the war.  We are instead giving a victory to the side that continues on the attack.  And do you really believe they’ll be content to rule and ruin their own piece of Afghanistan?