At a recent town hall meeting, [via Ryan Jaroncyk at The Humble Libertarian], U.S. Rep. Tim Johnson (R-IL) explained why he wants a withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan:
I'm suggesting to you that there is no end game. I believe that our men and women are there in a mission that is ill-defined ... I think we're losing people by the day, here and over there, with no even indirect relationship to our national security.
Within a couple of weeks, I'm going to be looking at legislation and issuing a definitive statement on my position on Afghanistan which at this point I would suggest would call for our withdrawal of troops forthwith.We've had a succession from Vietnam to Iraq to Afghanistan, and the net result has been thousands of lives lost, and very little progress made ... I'm in favor of doing everything we can to make America secure, to make sure we don't have another 9/11 or even anything analogous to that, but I'm also convinced that our continued presence in Afghanistan is not serving that role. And we need to seriously re-examine where we're at.
As I mentioned back in February of this year, "There is immense pressure to infuse greater troops in the region, but there is no objective in mind--and before you deploy the troops, you want to have a strategy." The administration is still stuck at a crossroads: either send more troops to protect the villages of Afghanistan from the Taliban or stay at present levels (or decrease U.S. troop commitments) to go after al Qaeda cells in Pakistan.
The American public is against sending more troops, the overwhelming majority of Democrats are against sending more troops, some Republicans in Congress have begun to speak out against sending more troops, and prominent conservative commentators are against sending more troops. I am reminded of a quote from General Fred Weyand, the last U.S. commander in Vietnam, who told Pulitzer prize-winning author and Vietnam correspondent Stanley Karnow that:
The American army is really a people's army in the sense that it belongs to the American people. ... When the army is committed the American people are committed; when the American people lose their commitment, it is futile to try to keep the army committed.
I used to ridicule President Bush for staying the course in Iraq. While President Obama will take a hit to his credibility for deciding to scale down America's presence--after having already deployed more troops earlier this year--I would commend the President for having the strength of his convictions for deciding not to send more young men and women to fight and die for a cause (and a country) that does not constitute a vital national security interest. Doubling down in Afghanistan is too easy. It's deciding to pull ourselves out of Afghanistan that will take true leadership.
I disagree, in hyper complex global chess game it is impossible to know the consequences of one's actions.
But a leader must have courage to act on his convictions and not play it down the middle.
Dear President Obama: It Will Take True Leadership to Get Us Out of Afghanistan
Last week:
Dear President Obama: It Will Take True Leadership to Get Us the Olympics
ONlly a weak and misguided leader would running away and abandon Afghans to Taliban tender mercies YET AGAIN(!)
This weekend, October 3rd and 4th, the American Friends Service Committee, and Military Families Speak Out, are sponsoring the Eyes Wide Open exhibit, which will be the first such exhibit showing the cost of war in Afghanistan.
A pair of boots representing each service member who has died as a result of military operations in Afghanistan will be displayed on the Ellipse in Washington, D.C. There have been 843 officially identified as killed in action to date at the Washington Post Faces of the Fallen site. Shoes representing civilian deaths will also be exhibited.
This is a very powerful visual display of the cost of the war in Afghanistan to our troops, their families, and the nation.
Over 840 pairs of boots must be transported to the Ellipse. A team of dedicated volunteers will arrange the exhibit, and you can see from the photos that this is done with great care and respect for those who have given their lives and for the solemnity of the exhibit.
Volunteers must stay with the exhibit overnight. Once the event is concluded, all the boots must be repacked and transported again.
Needless to say, there are costs to create this exhibit, and the sponsors are not getting grants from the Military Industrial Complex.