To say that I support President Obama's position to escalate in Afghanistan is a complicated subject. For moral reasons I am against war, but I also understand that my pacifism is not respected by the world in general. I am disappointed that we have our troops anywhere at risk... but on a personal note I am concerned for my family and friends that are currently there or soon will be there.
But it is the words of one of them that has convinced me that our President is making the right decision.
The three things that make me less uncomfortable are...
- I am pleased that there is a definitive exit plan already formed for it. There is no way that we can continue this without setting a limit on our future involvement. The "leaders" of Afghanistan will have greater impetus to get off their asses and do something when the knowledge that they will be on their own in the very near future.
- The funds for this escalation and the the subsequent exit are going to be going through normal budget procedures, allowing our representatives to properly fund this, either through new taxes or sacrifices from other programs.
- I am very pleased that the "surge" is primarily an increase in civilian workers to build the infrastructure of the land. Something that no other power that has ever gone there has ever tried to do to any appreciable amount.
But the thing that convinced me, was not the President, it was my cousin, he is a Major in the Army. He will be traveling back to Afghanistan again for yet another tour of duty there. He has been leading men in Afghanistan since the initial invasion, and has seen most of the region over the past eight years.
His perception, as a soldier, is that the only thing that the people of Afghanistan need is a few moments of security, from the drug cartels and the Taliban, to build something with which to support themselves with. Something that is not opium poppies or trafficking caches.
He knows that he will be in danger. The bracelet that he wears with the names of every soldier that he has lost carved on it reminds him that the soldiers that he leads will be in danger too. But as he told me over the holidays if by guarding a single village so that a single young man doesn't look towards the violence of the Taliban as a way out of poverty and depravity... then it is worth the risk for him.
So... even though I disagree with my cousin on the need for war or the need for our troops, and him in particular, to be in Afghanistan. I understand that there must be men in the world like him to see that others have the chance to have hope. I understand that while he is there he may rob the ranks of Islamic extremists of at least one more young impressionable child. And therefore I will support our President's decision to keep my cousin far from home for a little while longer... and I will hope that he makes it home safe with all of his men.