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Time To Leave Afghanistan?
Posted: Thursday, April 14, 2011 12:05 pm | Updated: 3:30 pm, Thu Apr 21, 2011.
Time To Leave Afghanistan? A commentary by J. F. Kelly, Jr. Coronado Eagle & Journal | 0 comments
Supporting the troops, to me, always included supporting their mission wherever that happened to take them, as long as they have boots on the ground. I could never understand how critics of a particular war or military action could claim that they supported the troops but not what they were trying to accomplish. I’m beginning to have second thoughts about that.
We’ve been in Afghanistan for about a decade, like the Russians before us, and despite frequent claims of progress, whatever that means, it’s hard to detect much of it, at least in terms that the average American can understand. Nearly 60 percent of Americans oppose the war and only 38 percent favor it, according to a September CNN poll. These numbers will likely worsen for supporters of the war as a result of the widespread anti-American rioting and massacre that took place at a United Nations compound in Mazar-i-Sharif, thought to be one of the safest cities in Afghanistan.
In a now-familiar scenario. Muslim worshippers at a Friday prayer service were whipped into a frenzy of hate and violence by radical clerics portraying Americans as evil and shouting “Death to America!” Thousands of Muslims in the city’s Blue Mosque were told to stand up against the enemies of the Quran with their weapons. The worshippers then became a mob, attacking the UN compound and killing at least seven. The rioting spread to other cities, including Kandahar and Jalalabad, where U.S. flags and an effigy of President Barack Obama were burned.
What caused the worshippers, members of this religion of peace, to be transformed into rampaging, murderous mobs? A report that Qurans had been burned on the other side of the world at a back-water Florida church.
Reaction from U.S. officials was predictable, given the prevailing political correctness in this and other western countries and the paranoia over provoking more violence from Muslim fanatics. Rather than putting the blame where it actually belonged, Gen. David Petraeus, commander of the U.S.-led coalition in Afghanistan, appeared to blame an obscure Quran-burning church leader, calling his actions “hateful, extremely disrespectful and enormously intolerant.”
Conceding that they were all of those things, which action, do you think, was the most hateful, disrespectful and intolerant: (a) burning a book or (b) murdering defenseless UN personnel engaged in peaceful activities in support of human rights?
In America and in most of the western world, free speech is a cherished right. We may abhor, as individuals, the manner in which these rights are sometimes exercised, such as the burning of flags and bibles, desecrating religious symbols and displaying, as works of art, images of a crucifix immersed in the “artist’s” urine, but civilized people don’t kill over these despicable acts. They are considered protected free speech in most modern, civilized nations where human lives and freedoms are valued.
To Muslims, of course, the Quran is more than just a book; it is itself a holy object and burning it is extremely offensive. But does it justify murder? Apparently, many Afghans and other radical Muslims think so. The new definition of a split second is the speed in which some radical Muslims will react with violence to any perceived insult to their religion. Beheadings are too good for such infidels. Hundreds of innocent people have been murdered as a result of exercising free speech perceived by radicals as intolerable insults to Islam. Is this acceptable behavior in a community of civilized nations?
In Jalalabad, demonstrators blocked the main highway for hours, shouting for U.S. troops to leave. Perhaps it’s time to accommodate them. The war in Afghanistan has cost us the precious lives of over 1500 American service members and nearly $400 billion than we can ill afford. Most Americans clearly do not think it is worth these costs.
The inevitable civilian deaths resulting from military action against un-uniformed enemies that hide among civilians bring regular condemnations from Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai, followed by more outbursts of anti-Americanism. According to a BBC/ABC/ARD poll, only 32 percent of Afghans now think that the U.S. is doing a good job, down from 68 percent in 2005 and less than half have a favorable impression of the U.S., down from 65 percent in 2007 and 83 percent in 2005. In the battle for hearts and minds, we are clearly losing. I thought we went into Afghanistan after 9/11 to kill alligators, not drain the swamp. Perhaps it’s time to declare mission accomplished and leave.
Posted: Thursday, April 14, 2011 12:05 pm | Updated: 3:30 pm, Thu Apr 21, 2011.
Time To Leave Afghanistan? A commentary by J. F. Kelly, Jr. Coronado Eagle & Journal | 0 comments
Supporting the troops, to me, always included supporting their mission wherever that happened to take them, as long as they have boots on the ground. I could never understand how critics of a particular war or military action could claim that they supported the troops but not what they were trying to accomplish. I’m beginning to have second thoughts about that.
We’ve been in Afghanistan for about a decade, like the Russians before us, and despite frequent claims of progress, whatever that means, it’s hard to detect much of it, at least in terms that the average American can understand. Nearly 60 percent of Americans oppose the war and only 38 percent favor it, according to a September CNN poll. These numbers will likely worsen for supporters of the war as a result of the widespread anti-American rioting and massacre that took place at a United Nations compound in Mazar-i-Sharif, thought to be one of the safest cities in Afghanistan.
In a now-familiar scenario. Muslim worshippers at a Friday prayer service were whipped into a frenzy of hate and violence by radical clerics portraying Americans as evil and shouting “Death to America!” Thousands of Muslims in the city’s Blue Mosque were told to stand up against the enemies of the Quran with their weapons. The worshippers then became a mob, attacking the UN compound and killing at least seven. The rioting spread to other cities, including Kandahar and Jalalabad, where U.S. flags and an effigy of President Barack Obama were burned.
What caused the worshippers, members of this religion of peace, to be transformed into rampaging, murderous mobs? A report that Qurans had been burned on the other side of the world at a back-water Florida church.
Reaction from U.S. officials was predictable, given the prevailing political correctness in this and other western countries and the paranoia over provoking more violence from Muslim fanatics. Rather than putting the blame where it actually belonged, Gen. David Petraeus, commander of the U.S.-led coalition in Afghanistan, appeared to blame an obscure Quran-burning church leader, calling his actions “hateful, extremely disrespectful and enormously intolerant.”
Conceding that they were all of those things, which action, do you think, was the most hateful, disrespectful and intolerant: (a) burning a book or (b) murdering defenseless UN personnel engaged in peaceful activities in support of human rights?
In America and in most of the western world, free speech is a cherished right. We may abhor, as individuals, the manner in which these rights are sometimes exercised, such as the burning of flags and bibles, desecrating religious symbols and displaying, as works of art, images of a crucifix immersed in the “artist’s” urine, but civilized people don’t kill over these despicable acts. They are considered protected free speech in most modern, civilized nations where human lives and freedoms are valued.
To Muslims, of course, the Quran is more than just a book; it is itself a holy object and burning it is extremely offensive. But does it justify murder? Apparently, many Afghans and other radical Muslims think so. The new definition of a split second is the speed in which some radical Muslims will react with violence to any perceived insult to their religion. Beheadings are too good for such infidels. Hundreds of innocent people have been murdered as a result of exercising free speech perceived by radicals as intolerable insults to Islam. Is this acceptable behavior in a community of civilized nations?
In Jalalabad, demonstrators blocked the main highway for hours, shouting for U.S. troops to leave. Perhaps it’s time to accommodate them. The war in Afghanistan has cost us the precious lives of over 1500 American service members and nearly $400 billion than we can ill afford. Most Americans clearly do not think it is worth these costs.
The inevitable civilian deaths resulting from military action against un-uniformed enemies that hide among civilians bring regular condemnations from Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai, followed by more outbursts of anti-Americanism. According to a BBC/ABC/ARD poll, only 32 percent of Afghans now think that the U.S. is doing a good job, down from 68 percent in 2005 and less than half have a favorable impression of the U.S., down from 65 percent in 2007 and 83 percent in 2005. In the battle for hearts and minds, we are clearly losing. I thought we went into Afghanistan after 9/11 to kill alligators, not drain the swamp. Perhaps it’s time to declare mission accomplished and leave.
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