by henigan

Created on: October 21, 2009   Last Updated: October 22, 2009

There are many reasons why we should not continue the fighting in Afghanistan. Before even considering American foreign policy, we need to look at the county of Afghanistan itself. History, by way of Russia, has shown that it is an impenetrable fortress. No matter how much our troops train to fight a war in this terrain, they will never know where caves are, where enemy troops may be hiding, where true danger lurks.

Therefore, they will always be at a disadvantage. It seems we have been looking for Bin Laden for eight years with no progress. If there were any lessons learned from our involvement in Viet Nam, this should be it. We cannot win a war there.

Of course, we have to decide about which issues we are fighting. Is a war with Afghanistan a sincere attempt to defend the United States from terrorist attacks? Is it retaliation? With one glaring exception, our intelligence agencies have done a remarkable job of protecting our shores.

The constant news of potential terrorists being arrested here in the United States is proof that these efforts have not been abandoned and are working.
On-going hostilities in Afghanistan are not going to improve this and may make it more difficult.

Are we fighting to spread freedom and the American way around the globe? President Lincoln has been a hero to many of our presidents who proceeded him, not because he kept the country together or freed the slaves. He has been their hero because he found a way to erode the rights and freedoms of our citizenry.

Since his presidency, the executive branch has used his example as an excuse to slowly remove the citizenry's ability to govern itself. In fact, the so-called Patriot Act did not have too many new directives: it listed freedoms that had long been gone.

Is the war in Afghanistan, along with the United States military operations in other middle eastern countries, a deceitful way to try and fix our economy? Eventually, we will have to pay for these wars. That can only make things worse.

The possibility even probability, that the violence the United States has felt justified in perpetrating on so many cultures has a religious agenda is the most disturbing of possibilities, when so many or our initial citizens arrived here looking to be free of religious persecution in their native countries.

Violence begets violence.

Staying the course in Afghanistan will bring peace to no one.

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