New Afghanistan Policy

Yesterday the Obama Administration stated its new policy regarding the "war" in Afghanistan. No longer is there talk of the creation of a democracy, fighting the Taliban or bringing any kind of peace among the warring factions in the country.

Rather, or at least my interpretation of what President Obama stated, is that the US objective now is solely to eradicate Al-Qaeda where ever they are. The war is focused solely on this terrorist organization and perhaps - although I do not want to make assumptions - any groups who support Al-Qaeda.

I thought this was the original plan back when Bush asked the Taliban leadership in Afghanistan to turn over bin Laden and they did not cooperate. I always thought that the war against terrorism should be focused on the terrorist, not the countries where the terrorist dwell.

We all know the invasion of Iraq had nothing to do with terrorism. That was Bush getting even with Saddam Hussein for putting out a hit order on his father. (And of course oil control).

Afghanistan was always different. Unfortunately the US policy operated under the misconceived notion that if the government was controlled everything else would fall into place.

As many experts have pointed out multi-tribal societies such as Afghanistan function totally different than the USA. Different history, different traditions, different mentalities. Unfortunately the USA leadership usually fails to study the enemy, rather putting them in the same bucket as the USA, which generally leads to tragedy. (Viet Nam, Bosnia, Somalia, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan just to name a few.)

If the Obama Administration is serious on focusing solely on taking out bin Laden and Al-Qaeda I wish them good hunting. I think they need to make the necessary diplomatic actions with Afghanistan and Pakistan to receive permission for their hunt, but at the same time stating the USA will stay out of the internal workings of these countries.

I know the reality is that US & NATO forces operating in any country are seen as invaders. However, hopefully if they show their sole objective is the eradication of Al-Qaeda, the Afghans and Pakistanis will allow them to operate and even assist, so they can get the foreigners out of their countries and things can go back to how it was before the USA showed up.

There is no ideal solution. At the same time, I believe that the USA and other nations should provide funds to Afghanistan to rebuild and educate the country so that future decisions in development will be made on learning rather than who has the better armament.

Maybe with cooperation among all parties working to eliminate terror and bringing peace and prosperity to the people things will take a positive turn.

I know its Common Sense, but will anyone actually see it that way?