U.S. Army 1st Lt. Steve Smith from Raleigh, N.C., of 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division, talks on the radio near the scene of fighting between Iraqi security forces and renegade members of the Sons of Iraq, in the Al-Fadhel neighborhood of eastern Baghdad, Iraq, on March 29, 2009. (U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. James Selesnick/Released)
Time to Wake up and Smell the Coffee
America needs to wake up from its dream and into the world of harsh reality. Afghanistan is a losing war.
America needs to wake up from its dream and into the world of harsh reality. Afghanistan is a losing war.
Over 757 U.S. soldiers have been killed and more than 2,238 severely wounded. Over $228 billion has been wasted on the war, as we slowly figure out that we are coming up short of our goals in Afghanistan.
Our major objective in Afghanistan was to end corruption. We failed when President Karzai was elected. Brother of a drug trafficker, housing two war lords as vice presidents and ballot box stuffer himself, while Al Qaeda and the Taliban is causing terror everywhere else.
Now President Obama’s hand-picked general McChrystal wants an additional 10,000-40,000 more troops. Why? So they can keep a corrupt official in office. McChrystal says, ”More troops are needed or the mission will likely resulting failure”. We can’t even find Osama Bin Laden, what makes you think we can find his hidden army or fight off the Taliban, especially when not even their own people want us in their country in the first place.
Currently England, Germany and France are creating proposals for the U.N, which will be in by the end of the year; this will decide whether to leave or stay, increase or decrease troops, where troops are most valuable and new tactics for the war on terror.
We need to evacuate our ground forces; a CNN poll shows 57 percent of Americans want out of Afghanistan. At the same time, we can’t leave our allies in the dust. We should start figuring out our exit stagy, but not act on it until we hear England, Germany and France’s proposal to the U.N. If we like their proposal we will do what they ask, but if we don’t we should slowly turn the fighting over to the Afghanistan military over the course
of the year.
We should not completely leave Afghanistan; their troops need better training, which we could provide. We should install military training bases in Afghanistan to help them train better to serve their country. Only they can save their country from themselves.
Mr. President your job is not to care about the Republicans or Democrats of Congress, but the voice of the people. You cannot deny our voices any longer. We want out.
This article by Rich Polley was digitized in accordance with the Eye’s archival policy. The original PDF is available here.
Chukwudi, better known as Chudy, has been Editor-in-Chief since his sophomore year and has worked on the newspaper since his freshman year. His main focus is editing of articles, social media, and managing the website.