by Tim Williams

Created on: January 04, 2010   Last Updated: January 06, 2010

What began as a crusade following 9/11 has turned out to be almost a total dismal failure from the start. The strategy was ill planned, our armed forces were ill prepared and they still are, and our veterans are continuing to fall through society's cracks. The whole campaign in Afghanistan and Iraq have wasted billions of dollars, cost thousands of lives, and caused catastrophic damage to all involved. So far the United States has literally failed to achieve any kind of stability let alone any kind of victory. We lost focus on the objective. The United States failed to remember that famous quote from General Douglas McAuther " There can be no substitute for total victory."  

 Complete elimination of all terrorists cells globally, and establishing stable governments and economies in Afghanistan and Iraq has to be the main objective of why we sent our armed forces in harms way. This objective alone should have preempted the United States to form a multinational coalition  with the United Nations so that together this objective will be achieved. The United States has been and still is ill prepared militarily and economically able to wage such a campaign alone. A progression of preparedness should have been initiated before any of our armed forces ever left the United States.   

Today, if the United States continues to remain on this current path and plan of direction in Afghanistan and Iraq we will only escalate the intolerable conditions in the Mid East and any kind of stability will never be accomplished. How then can the United States along with the rest of the Industrialized nations eliminate the global threat of terrorism and establish stability in the East while regaining every nations national security?  

The answers are not as un daunting as they seem.  When World War II began America and our allies in Europe didn't need any encouragement to increase the size of the military. More than enough people enlisted in the Armed Forces. It was perceived as an honor and a duty to serve. Today, what has happened primarily because the way the whole Vietnam era was run our military is now perceived as not a duty or honor to serve ones country. Too much apathy and  callous attitudes prevail and lingers in our society today. The United States has to educate all that acts of terrorism affect us all in one way or another. This country and the rest of the world will never be secure or stable until the threat

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