Subscribe
The Daily Grind Video
CLOSE

Despite many’s willingness to bail on Afghanitan, it is essential the United States maintains a presence in the region.

There is an often said and consistently perplexing attitude in politics: say what you need to say to get elected. As the election cycle revs up, it seems many politicians have found the Afghan war unappealing and unworthy

Or perhaps, each of these politicians do not understand Middle Eastern politics and the complex dynamics at play in the region.

[pagebreak]

 

To put the value of the Afghan war in context, consider the following:

We invaded Afghanistan, with the support and sympathy of the international community, after the horrid and unforgettable savage attacks launched on us on September 11, 2001 by al-Qaeda. This is a topic to exploit for an argument to stay in Afghanistan; it is a point of fact of why “we” are there. Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaeda cohorts comfortable lived and trained in Afghanistan under the approving eye of the Taliban until some time leading up to 9/11. Al-Qaeda began the process of packing up and leaving as the atrocity of 9/11 was to unfold.

We have remained in Afghanistan and have successful ousted the oppressive Taliban regime from power. This is the same regime that has authorized countless acts of terror on the United States, our soldiers in Afghanistan, and across the border in Pakistan. The Taliban, as well as al-Qaeda, have been thrust from a nation of security to a state of flux. Problematically, much of the leadership of each group waits patiently across the Afghan-Pakistan border in the Swat Valley. This has become their new command post in efforts to destabilize Afghanistan, as well as the nuclear nation of Pakistan.

 

 

[pagebreak]

We have a vital interest in maintaining continued operations in Afghanistan to both root out terrorism and preventing an even grander atrocity than 9/11. With al-Qaeda’s nucleus on the run the terrorist band of zealots are forced to rely on smaller splinter cells that can at best carry out the attacks seen on the London and Madrid transit systems. Yes, these attacks are troubling and should be stopped, but it again shows the progress made in thwarting massive attacks like 9/11.

 

 

Speaking of large attacks, Pakistan has a vast nuclear arsenal. Osama bin Laden has collaborated, according to US sources, with two leading nuclear scientists from Pakistan and, at least formerly, working for the Pakistani nuclear program. Couple bin Laden’s nuclear aspirations with his unquestioned desire to use it, a nuclear attack is the grandest attack bin Laden could envision. If we leave Afghanistan, and therefore the region of Pakistan, we allow Afghanistan to revert to the terrorist stronghold of the late 1990s and permit al-Qaeda to roam freely in efforts to steal, or simply acquire, nuclear bombs across the border in Pakistan.

Finally, terrorism is rooted in anger. Sheer unadulterated fury aimed at the United States, Israel, and much of the west. The root of this anger is a troubling history of U.S. involvement in the Middle East that has enraged much of the Muslim world and spurred some to join terrorist efforts to violently repel the United States and spread Sharia law. We must continue to wage a war on terrorism but also a war on peace and building in Afghanistan, as well as Pakistan, to show the world that we are not just good at killing, that we are not just “infidels” aiming to kill Muslims. The United States, hopefully with the courageous involvement of other n