Afghanistan was an economic basket case back in 2005. Things are going from bad to worse. Over 1,000 civilians were killed in 2006, the Taliban is on the comeback trail, violence is making reconstruction impossible, girls are being traded for opium debts, and the generals expect a rise in suicide bombings this year (there were 139 last year). Britain and some U.S. lawmakers want to increase our troop levels there.
What should we do? Increase troop levels? Increase economic aid? Write off the whole country and pull out? Something else?
I’m not as well read with regards to Afghanistan as I am Iraq but my general sense is that it’d probably be more worthwhile to remove troops from Iraq and send them to Afghanistan – kill two birds with one stone, as it were. Or bury a dead bird and save another on life support. Something like that.
Pull out of Iraq, freeing up resources to redouble efforts in Afghanistan. Can’t think of anything else. It’s obvious Iraq is a total loss at this point; no matter what we do, there will be a bloody civil war. Afghanistan might just possibly be stabilized.
Colonize it, claim the territory as our own. Then, use it as a base of operations for Iraq’s neverending conflict. We could rename it Afghanistanabama. We’d get Skinyrd (sp?) to play at the opening ceremony…of…the takeover, or whatever.
From what little I have read, and I’m willing to be corrected of course, is that the Afghanistan population is much more willing to work with and help us out than in Iraq. They’ve been through so much war and tumultuous religious totalitarianism over the last 20 years that they just want to settle down and live a stable life…which is why additional troops there would certainly be a blessing instead of fuel on the fire.
