Or, perhaps more importantly, WHY in the world?!?
My brother Josh is in the Army. He is currently living in Afghanistan doing some kind of spooky intelligence special ops stuff. He's always been reticent about his service, except when he was in Germany and acting as a sick call nurse. ;) I still tease him about that. He was also a recruiter in Arizona for several years.
I worry about him over there, though. Afghanistan has never been the kind of place Iraq was. Josh spent a year there, too, back in the day. This was ten years ago, when things in Iraq had settled down a little bit, but it was still very much a shooting war.
Josh didn't initially want to be in the Army. He wanted to be a police officer, but joined the Army before the war in Iraq started (after September 11th). I told him at the time that he was going to go to Afghanistan - that's where the action was happening then - and he wasn't worried about that. He just wanted to serve.
Josh is one of those guys who just LOOKS like a soldier. Tall, lean, and confident. He's shaved his head for the past several years now, but his blonde hair and blue eyes go well with the rest of his features. He's always been driven, hard-working, and the Army has provided him the discipline he needed to round out his life. He's not perfect, but he's awesome and I'm proud to be his brother.
And I wonder what the hell he's doing in AFGHANISTAN?!?
Oh, I know. I know all about fighting the Taliban. I know that it's the good fight.
But we seem to have forgotten what Afghanistan is.
Afghanistan is the place where armies go - not to die, but to LANGUISH.
The Afghans have figured out that they're not going anywhere, and that foreign armies all really just want to go home. So if they can harry the invading forces long enough, they will outlast and overcome. It's really rather clever, because unless you want to wipe them all out, you've always got this thorn in your side. Or an annoying horsefly that doesn't totally deserve your full attention, but is distracting and annoying. Alexander the Great lost his great push to India - not just because the folks around the Indus River were amazing fighters, but because his troops, after having been through Afghanistan, wanted to GO HOME. 2000 years later, the British discovered the same thing. The Russians tried in the 70s and 80s, and there was a civil war though most of the 90s. Then we waded in to the miasma, ostensibly to root out al Qaeda, but really as a massive man hunt for bin Laden. And we have no way to get out.
We are doing good things over there. We have helped with infrastructure, with security and stability, and with billions and billions of dollars. All while dealing with a recession here at home.
But the cost has been high. We have lost more than 2,200 men and women. There have been tens of thousands injured. And for what? FOR WHAT?!?
I don't get it. I really don't.
Afghanistan offers no long-term strategic advantage to the US. They have no resources for us to exploit. The total economy is worth about $29 billion, which is almost a rounding error on our tax roles. Poppy production is down, but the industry still employs some 3 million people. The attraction for even low paying jobs is apparent when you consider there is a 35% unemployment rate, and that most folks live on about $3 per day. Every little bit helps.
So we went in and scattered the Taliban and neutered al Qaeda. Tell me again why we are still there? I got lost somewhere...
We just need to clean up our stuff and get out. Now.
My brother Josh is in the Army. He is currently living in Afghanistan doing some kind of spooky intelligence special ops stuff. He's always been reticent about his service, except when he was in Germany and acting as a sick call nurse. ;) I still tease him about that. He was also a recruiter in Arizona for several years.
I worry about him over there, though. Afghanistan has never been the kind of place Iraq was. Josh spent a year there, too, back in the day. This was ten years ago, when things in Iraq had settled down a little bit, but it was still very much a shooting war.
Josh didn't initially want to be in the Army. He wanted to be a police officer, but joined the Army before the war in Iraq started (after September 11th). I told him at the time that he was going to go to Afghanistan - that's where the action was happening then - and he wasn't worried about that. He just wanted to serve.
Josh is one of those guys who just LOOKS like a soldier. Tall, lean, and confident. He's shaved his head for the past several years now, but his blonde hair and blue eyes go well with the rest of his features. He's always been driven, hard-working, and the Army has provided him the discipline he needed to round out his life. He's not perfect, but he's awesome and I'm proud to be his brother.
And I wonder what the hell he's doing in AFGHANISTAN?!?
Oh, I know. I know all about fighting the Taliban. I know that it's the good fight.
But we seem to have forgotten what Afghanistan is.
Afghanistan is the place where armies go - not to die, but to LANGUISH.
The Afghans have figured out that they're not going anywhere, and that foreign armies all really just want to go home. So if they can harry the invading forces long enough, they will outlast and overcome. It's really rather clever, because unless you want to wipe them all out, you've always got this thorn in your side. Or an annoying horsefly that doesn't totally deserve your full attention, but is distracting and annoying. Alexander the Great lost his great push to India - not just because the folks around the Indus River were amazing fighters, but because his troops, after having been through Afghanistan, wanted to GO HOME. 2000 years later, the British discovered the same thing. The Russians tried in the 70s and 80s, and there was a civil war though most of the 90s. Then we waded in to the miasma, ostensibly to root out al Qaeda, but really as a massive man hunt for bin Laden. And we have no way to get out.
We are doing good things over there. We have helped with infrastructure, with security and stability, and with billions and billions of dollars. All while dealing with a recession here at home.
But the cost has been high. We have lost more than 2,200 men and women. There have been tens of thousands injured. And for what? FOR WHAT?!?
I don't get it. I really don't.
Afghanistan offers no long-term strategic advantage to the US. They have no resources for us to exploit. The total economy is worth about $29 billion, which is almost a rounding error on our tax roles. Poppy production is down, but the industry still employs some 3 million people. The attraction for even low paying jobs is apparent when you consider there is a 35% unemployment rate, and that most folks live on about $3 per day. Every little bit helps.
So we went in and scattered the Taliban and neutered al Qaeda. Tell me again why we are still there? I got lost somewhere...
We just need to clean up our stuff and get out. Now.
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