The New Middle East: Afghanistan (Part Two of Four)

     Since the Afghanistan war started in the fall of 2001, it has been really hectic within the region.  I remember being in high school and the whole drama of September 11^th and the aftermath of the event.  When the decision was made to go to Afghanistan to fight terrorism, it made sense and seemed like the right thing to do.  I will still defend the decision that President Bush made to go into Afghanistan. [Yes, during my high school years, I was an avid republican who was heavily involved with politics – surprise, surprise.]  The sidestep of going into Iraq due to their connections with 9/11/01 was a complete travesty.  The “weapons of mass destruction” quagmire was just “rally around the flag” rhetoric. It makes sense to support one’s country and their international positions, but it also takes a lot to question the reasons behind such decisions as well as looking at all the facts surrounding the critical events surrounding such long-term consequences.

            The fact that the United States neglected Afghanistan for a long time, well not neglect per-se but not consider enough time and resources to the issue, circumvents the reality of Afghanistan being an albatross around the United States’ neck. The fact of the matter is that the United States has made Afghanistan a better country, but at the same time the government that was hand-picked by U.S. personnel has essentially given us a slap in the face when it comes to cooperation.  There have been more attacks within the country since 2006 due to U.S. involvement, the Karzai administration has stated multiple times that the Obama Administration is not trusting and the relationship has been strand by broken diplomacy between the Obama Administration.

            Let me back up for a moment and state that the United States has done a lot of good things for the country.  We have assisted in the building of their police force, we have trained her military, we have helped rid their land of ground explosives and roadside bombs, and we have helped educate their children. In turn, the Afghanistan government doesn’t trust the Obama Administration, they have discussed the major exit of U.S. troops by the end of 2014, doesn’t trust security forces of the US (and other countries but more-so the United States), making claims against the United States helping terrorists destabilizing the Afghan country, and basically acting like a spoiled little brat child.  At this point, I feel that the United States has done as much as it can do with regards to getting the country back on its feet.  We have been there long enough and it is time for the United States to exit Afghanistan.  It does us no good to continue to occupy a country that clearly doesn’t want us there. In fact, it is because of the heated tensions between the United States and Afghanistan governments that lead me to believe that the “War on Terror” in Afghanistan may have been won at the very beginning, but we are slowly going back to the way things were pre-9/11. Are we really winning in Afghanistan? I really don’t think we are….we have only wasted a lot of money in an area of the country that we were justified in occupying; but, since we have completed major tasks within the region, we can shift our focus on more pressing matters such as domestic issues and other international areas of the world.  Will we ever learn…I would like to think we can learn something.