Permit me to make my proposal for Afghanistan: Get out. Now. No handwringing and no delays. President Obama should issue an immediate order that all U.S. troops withdraw from Afghanistan and return to the United States at once.
Look, they’ve had seven years to kill the terrorists. That’s longer than World War II. Longtime supporters of The Future of Freedom Foundation know that when George W. Bush declared his “war on terrorism” seven years ago, we warned that such a war would prove to be much like the drug war — that is, one that has no end. Who can now doubt that we were right? U.S. officials tell us that the war on terrorism in Afghanistan is just now getting a good start — after seven years of killing the terrorists!
How many terrorists have they killed in Afghanistan since they first invaded the country? How many terrorists did they start with? What percentage have they killed of that total? How many terrorists are left?
My hunch is that no one knows the answers to any of these questions. In fact, from the way they’re making things sound, there are more terrorists than ever in Afghanistan. Why else would President Obama be sending a large number of additional U.S. troops there?
Heck, I’ll bet they can’t even come up with a good definition of a terrorist in Afghanistan! Does it include, for example, people who are angry at the U.S. over the killing of friends and relatives by U.S. bombs dropped on Afghan wedding parties?
“But the terrorists will follow us home!” the neocons cry. Let’s carefully examine that nonsensical bromide.
First, it operates on the assumption that U.S. troops are a magnet and that the terrorists are iron filings. Not so. The terrorists are human beings with the power of exercising choices. If they want to disengage from battles with U.S. troops in Afghanistan and come to the United States to commit terrorist acts, they are fully capable of doing so. The presence of U.S. troops in Afghanistan does not prevent the terrorists from making such a choice.
Second, let’s assume that the terrorists decided to “follow us home.” How exactly would they do that? By loading onto terrorist transport ships and terrorist transport planes and following the U.S. transport planes and ships to the United States? That’s ridiculous. The terrorists don’t have transport ships and planes.
The worst that could happen is, say, a couple hundred terrorists making their way into the United States. Sure, they could blow up some buildings but the possibility that there could be a conquest of the United States, with the terrorists taking over the presidency, the Congress, the courts, the IRS, and all the state governments, and overcoming all those millions of Americans who have been buying all those guns and ammo is nonexistent. Again, however, those 200 or so terrorists could come here anyway despite the presence of U.S. troops in Afghanistan.
Third, by exiting the country, the U.S. military will no longer be dropping bombs on Afghan wedding parties and others, which would immediately reduce the incentive for new recruits to join the terrorists. The reason that the ranks of the terrorists are larger than they were seven years ago is because the U.S. military has killed lots of people who had nothing to do with the terrorists, especially all those people in the wedding parties that have been bombed. That sort of thing tends to make people angry and vengeful. While it’s true that the terrorists could still come to the United States and conduct terrorist attacks after a U.S. withdrawal, at least the ranks of the terrorists will no longer be continuously swelled by the bombing of Afghan wedding parties and others unconnected to the terrorists.
“But the Taliban could regain control of Afghanistan” the neocons cry. But that’s empire talk. Who cares whether a particular regime likes the U.S. government or not? All over the world, there are regimes that hate the U.S. government, some of which are brutal and tyrannical, and that, in turn, are hated by the U.S. government. North Korea. Iran. Venezuela. Cuba. Life goes on, even when the U.S. government is unsuccessful in effecting regime change in such countries and installing a regime that is friendly to the U.S. government.
“But the Taliban could give sanctuary to the terrorists” the neocons cry. Yeah, and so could every other country whose government hates the U.S. government. And don’t forget: the U.S. government never provided even a scintilla of evidence showing complicity between the Taliban government and al Qaeda to commit the 9/11 attacks. In fact, didn’t most of the 9/11 hijackers came from Saudi Arabia, whose government is friendly to the U.S. government?
An immediate withdrawal of all U.S. troops from Afghanistan would limit the U.S. government to dealing with the threat of terrorism here at home and would put a stop to what it has been doing to perpetually fuel the threat of terrorism — e.g., dropping bombs on wedding parties and others unconnected to terrorism in Afghanistan.
Finally, the withdrawal of all U.S. troops from Afghanistan (and Iraq) would have the additional bonus of strengthening the U.S. economy by immediately reducing federal borrowing and expenditures by hundreds of billions of dollars. Given that out-of-control federal spending is threatening our nation with bankruptcy and ruin, a major reduction in federal spending would be a good thing.