I just read your email stating the importance of continuing the fight in Afghanistan.
It is my opinion that our presence in these foreign wars of occupation encourages Al Quaida and is what keeps them alive.
Indirectly this war killed my son Che. I went to the Coast Guard base in Sacramento in December with Che’s twin brother Noah to listen to Che’s last words recorded on the black box taken from the wreckage of his C-130. He was angry that the San Diego Navy control tower was not answering his radio call.
Here’s what Che said: “They are playing their war games while we could be rescuing one of their relatives.” Minutes later a Marine helicopter on a night troop carrying exercise slammed into the side of CG1705. Nine young Americans were dead.
Is it worth it? The great republican president General Dwight Eisenhower in a speech before he left office warned us to “…beware of the military industrial complex.” This war in Afghanistan is already ten years old. I think the war is kept going by industrial influences that are making money from it.
The world is laughing at us for committing our military might against a few cave dwellers. Congressman Herger, I want you to do something about it.
Martin Barnes
Capay Valley, CA 95607
To Martin Barnes: My heartfelt condolences on the loss of your son. I deeply thank him for his service to our country.
The war in Afghanistan is troubling. From some documentaries I have watched (which have to be taken w a grain of salt) the military/politicians have developed something called “gov’t in a box”, which is opened up as soon as the military drives into a village it wants to convert into a “democracy”. It pulls the “democratic gov’t” out of the “box”, sets it up, then pulls out to move on to the next village. The problem w this model is that it only plants the seeds, but does not stay to water and nurture it as good stewards, but instead expects the Afghanis to do it who have no knowledge of when, how, what to do. And so the seeds never really get the opportunity to grow.
Additionally, the Afghanis know the United States military cannot stay forever, and will eventually pull out. The Afghanis also know they will eventually have to deal with the Taliban when the day comes that no more U.S. troops are in Afghanistan. I actually think Obama made a huge mistake in calling for a troop surge to “win the war” in Afghanistan, rather than perhaps maintaining a low key presence. It is not winnable through the “gov’t in a box” methodology.
It is also naive to think an Afghan tribal culture that has engaged in internecene warfare for hundreds if not thousands of years can somehow embrace democracy in a few short months. It never ceases to amaze me how unrealistic our politicians/military leaders can be.
There are some real underlying problems w the current model of how to fight wars to bring about democracy, that are so fundamentally flawed as to be breathtakingly stupid.
But do we pull out altogether from the two wars we are currently fighting? If we do in Afghanistan, the Taliban will move in like cockroaches coming out of the cupboard at night, and begin the slaughter of anyone who remotely assisted Allied Forces. Do we allow Iran backed Al-Quaida forces to take over the oil fields in Iraq? Frankly, I think the U.S., bc of its naivete and short-sighted thinking, has boxed itself in to an untenable situation w no good solutions – NONE!
The U.S./Allied Forces have to rethink their strategies…
Right, so let’s just pull out, mind our own business, and wait for another domestic terror attack like 911..
or perhaps we can let the taliban run over the country like they did before and stone women to death and such.
oh but women aren’t really important to you are they.
they aren’t really human beings, so therefore in your opinion, standing up for the rights of women doesn’t require the kind of attention we give to a “human rights issue.”
women are human beings and therefore, we should stay in afghanistan, defeat and destroy the taliban and alquaeda, and save the rights and lives of countless women (aka..humans_