The narrative on war has been pretty clear this year: The war is out of control.
Which war? The Iraq War.
There is another war on, you know: The War in Afghanistan. Yes, it’s a separate war. It’s against Muslim enemies, like in Iraq, but these are different enemies.
That’s not to say that there is no similarity between the two wars, however. For instance, they’re both disasters that are rapidly getting worse.
The War in Afghanistan was supposed to have been won a long time ago, but it wasn’t really. The Taliban were never defeated, just beaten back for awhile. They control large territories within Afghanistan.
Osama Bin Laden was never captured, and Al Quaida was not defeated.
Now, just a day after the Iraqi Vice President was wounded in an attack by insurgents, our own Vice President, Dick Cheney, was caught in the middle of an insurgent attack in Afghanistan. Cheney was staying at Bagram Air Base overnight when the attack took place.
Afghanistan is slipping out of the control of the American occupation there, just as it is in Iraq. Just as in Iraq, war is not working.
We should have given peace a chance, back when the Afghan government offered to hand Osama Bin Laden over to the United States through a third country. This all could have been over a long time ago.
Instead, the American people demanded vengeance. Remember all those political cartoons with pictures of Uncle Sam rolling up his sleeves, ready to get revenge? Why can’t we get the political cartoon showing the result of the attacks of revenge? Uncle Sam is the one who was beaten to a pulp.
The USA got suckered into a fight that didn’t need to be fought.
