Adieu, Afghanistan

Our schools fall further behind, our infrastructure sinks into the mud, our ability to produce jobs plummets, immigration becomes more corrosive, our debt roars past the $13 trillion mark, poverty reaches all-time highs, and proponents of the dumbing down of America celebrate their achievements. No politician questions whether we are in decline, yet we continue to spend $2 billion a week to fight a war in Afghanistan on our way to our next war in Pakistan.

When last I looked, neither the Taliban nor Al Qaida owned an attack aircraft or a warship. Neither had a general or an admiral.  Neither claimed an armored vehicle or a long-range weapon. Neither had a ballistic missile program or a delivery system. Neither has the wherewithal for an organized assault on a foreign country. While both may get access to nuclear materials from Iran or North Korea or those rolling around loose in Russia, we are not militarily engaged in those countries.

Al Qaida will certainly hit us if they can, but do we solve that problem by fighting 13^th century guerilla warriors belonging  to a force whose most potent weapon is a bomb strapped to their bodies or one buried at the edge of a dirt road? In Iraq we spent nearly $1 trillion to kill one man.  In Afghanistan our expenditures will eventually reach that same level, but our goals lack even the pathetic target for which we so recently sacrificed 4,000 lives and America’s prosperity. President Obama asked General Petraeus whether Afghanistan was necessary. Have you ever been asked whether your job is necessary and replied “no”? We must focus and begin to serve our own national interest if our government can’t figure it out.

With more than 200,000 employees, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, not the Department of Defense, is responsible for protecting us against the zealots. Their $55 billion budget is spent largely on intelligence and their mission is to interdict attempts to inflict terror on the U.S. They are good at what they do and getting better. We must learn to rely on them.

While America is a republic and not a pure democracy, the voice of the people in these matters can make itself  heard so forcefully that we have the power to stop these pointless and futile wars.  If you doubt this, read Lyndon Johnson's memoirs.