Imagine if the United States had been conquered by Afghanistan, and then we had been occupied for the last eight years.
Imagine: The Afghan military has moved ominously around America, heavily armed and armored, for eight years, exchanging fire regularly with American freedom fighters. The Afghanis describe our Resistance fighters as "insurgents," though.
Imagine: Some of the Afghanis are civil, or even friendly. Some of them are brutal. Some pass out Korans to our children. All Americans know someone who has been tortured or who has died in their custody. Many Americans died in the invasion, as collateral damage. Every now and then an Afghan drone blows up a wedding reception, a church supper, or a local bar. Oops. "Regrettable." Americans are hungry, horrified, and afraid.
Imagine: What would be the state of our Hearts and Minds toward Afghanistan at this point? I can see even formerly peaceful elderly women crawling through the underbrush, with rifles in their hands and murder in their hearts. I can see law-abiding neighbors who’ve lost family and are ready to die to drive out the invaders. I can see black fury lasting for generations.
Imagine: If the Afghanis sent in enough additional troops to crush all our resistance, would we accept their control and become their friends? If they rebuilt some schools and repaired some roads, would we be grateful? Never. A hundred years later, the occupation would still be considered a great evil.
Back in 2001, a quick decisive invasion, catching bin Laden in Tora Bora, followed by massive civic construction, might have worked. That possibility is gone. Squandered forever. The past eight years cannot be undone. Not for generations.
Our continued presence hurts Afghani women and children most. It drains and damages our own country in multiple terrible ways. Our macho image is all we are fighting for now, and it is not worth all the costs. As for generals’ recommendations, when you’re a hammer, everything looks like a nail.
There are endless countries where Al Qaeda can go. Much of the 9/11 plan seems to have been developed in Germany. None of the plotters was an Afghan. Most of them were Saudis. We cannot invade the whole world, or even invade the whole Third World. We aren’t fighting the measly 100 Al Qaeda still in Afghanistan. We are only fighting the desperate Afghan resistance.
Let’s think about our real national interest now. Bring our traumatized military home and begin to rehabilitate it. We may need our military in good shape one of these days. We could use all that funding for uses that actually benefit our people. Let Afghanistan begin to recover. It will never get any easier to leave, but the longer we stay, the more we will have lost, including a lot of our honor.