Iraq: What Have We Accomplished? Afghanistan: What Are We Trying To Accomplish?

I've heard it all before. "If we don't fight them over there, we'll have to fight them over here." That's why were chasing Al-Qaeda and the Taliban throughout the terrible terrain of Afghanistan. It seems to be very difficult to hunt down and destroy an enemy that is not a nation-state; especially with the same old military tactics. I'm referring to the need for more and more combat troops on the ground. I mean, it's been nine years...so far.

We're engaged in "nation building," I've also heard. I think that means to set up a foreign government that is friendly to us. That's beyond our capacity to do, in my opinion. I believe the United States must rethink its approach to fighting this new kind of enemy and rethink if its our job to build other country's government to our liking.

The bottom line is, how many more American and coalition forces must die in Afghanistan when they themselves have shown they are not our partner in what we're trying to do over there? I have the feeling that when General McChrystal arrived in that nearly desolate country, he found out that our "partners" are really no good. But since we are so entrenched there, he wants more troops so we can assume more of the burden that the Afghans won't. Let's face it, no American general is ever going to say its a lost cause so let's get out. We'll just keep throwing more and more of our military into the fray and eventually we'll have enough to "win." So Chrystal has asked for (some say, demanded) another 40,000 troops, for starters. That's in addition to the 68,000 President Obama has committed already.

My point is that we are fighting a very long and protracted war that shows no "light at the end of the tunnel," with conventional tactics (ground troops) against an unconventional enemy. The military always wants more troops in every war. Vietnam is a prime example. It started with a handful of military "advisers" and ended up with over 500,000 troops fighting in the jungles of Southeast Asia. And in World War II, our military generals told Congress in order to win the war in Europe it would need 200 divisions. So we must ask ourselves, is it really worth it?