The Mightiest Military in History

Dear Mr. President,

Eleven years, a trillion bucks, the “mightiest military in history,” drones, laser-guided missiles, helicopter gunships, night vision goggles, computer controlled everything, live streaming video and we totally fail to rid Afghanistan of Islamist militants or Taliban insurgents, while a ragtag bunch of rural woodcutters and shopkeepers clear their districts in two months. You might want to send your generals to those villages to see how the heck they did it, especially that Dempsey guy. I keep seeing the picture of him walking around Bagram in full battle gear looking a little geeky and twerpy if you ask me. I guess he was there to give his generals a little pep talk about all those green-on-blue attacks but I think he could have spent his time a lot better by visiting those mountain villages and getting some tips from them. Assuming they’d even agree to talk to him. Those people got no use for foreigners, one reason they kicked the Taliban out, because they were a bunch of foreigner telling them what to do—there’s a lesson there, Mr. President. They want nothing to do with us or the corrupt Karzai government, either. They just want what everyone wants, to be left alone and live their lives without somebody telling them do-this-don’t-do-that. The idea seems to be catching on. Another district got together and cleared itself of Taliban in short order and now another district’s started pushing back and who knows where this might lead? Of course, everybody wants to get in on the act—another branch of the Taliban (who knew they had branches?), the Afghan government, the National Security Directorate, probably the CIA—but these old boys are smart, they know what’s what. As one said, “We don’t want anyone here, just leave us the way we are and let us fight for our people ourselves. Now they are trying to change this into a national uprising and into a business and these corrupt officials are trying to make money from it, not to help the people.” Truer words were never spoken. That’s the essence of what war’s all about – money and power. Seems to me like we’ve overstayed our welcome and it’s time to pack up, tuck our tail between our legs and skeddadle. Why not just paste a smiley face on it, declare victory and leave? They certainly don’t need us there blowing stuff up, killing them, disrupting their lives. I don’t see that we’ve done a lick of good for anyone over there—or here—just misery and hatred. And that won’t change till we leave.