We have been involved in two wars in two years. Iraq, because of the chaos and ongoing casualties is most on our minds these days and Afghanistan is pretty much off our radar, except for the occasional news article about a battle or casualty.
Afghanistan, because of its direct link to 911 is the less controversial war of the two and even though most of us here did not agree with the Iraq war, we all support the war in Afghanistan, right? I've heard very few negative comments about our invasion of Afghanistan even though 3400 innocent civilians died as a result. It is a war I, for one, did NOT support.
No, I'm not a pacifist despite what my name (Pacifica) implies. I'm just not sure that fighting an unconventional opponent with conventional means is wise. I have a sneaking suspicion that the way we are conducting the "War on Terrorism" will not lead us to ultimate victory and a more peaceful world. Quite the opposite, I fear.
I guess what I'm trying to get at is this. The 911 terrorists were able to inflict a hell of a lot of damage with relatively little money by being creative and unpredictable. Our response since 911 has seemed pretty darn predictable to me. What did we do? We built up our forces (you can't exactly hide thousands of soldiers on your borders), bombed the heck out of things and then sent in the "cavalry". As soon as we were able, we formed a puppet government that may or may not survive and then, in our attention deficit haphazard foreign policy way, we moved on to another venture. No real surprise. It seems to be the American way.
Like I said, many Americans are no longer paying attention to the conflict in Afghanistan. But our soldiers are still dying there (100 so far). Osama Bin Laden hasn't been caught and is still issuing threats. Al-Qaida has dispersed around the planet with cells popping up in Asia, Africa, and elsewhere. The Taliban is on the rise again. The destabilization of Pakistan is a real possibility (and, Pakistan really does have nuclear weapons). And although we may have temporarily disrupted the terrorist network, we have also provided al-Qaida with a recruiting bonanza by invading a Muslim country and killing thousands of its citizens.
Obviously the issue of terrorism is complex, but I think our current foreign policy, which is based a good part in political expediency, rather than good sound judgment, is only compounding the problem.
My belief is the following: Since we are dealing with an unconventional enemy, they will never be defeated by standing armies or smart bombs. We have to think "out of the box" just as they do. Otherwise, I fear our clumsy policy, and the death and destruction we leave in our wake, will come back to bite us, big time.