Afghanistan

Usually I write on theological issue and I leave politics at the door.

Please allow me a quick digression this time...

Pres. Obama sending more troops to Afghanistan is a mistake.

This is an unwinnable war which is costing far too much in both our soldier's blood and our nation's coffers.

When you look at the lack of preexistent infrastructure, the corrupt government, the incredibly harsh terrain, the guerilla nature of the enemy, the Pakistani location of the enemy leadership, the experiences of other major powers when they fought in Afghanistan, etc...

When you add up all of those factors, you get an impossible victory.  We can't nation build in that place (and Obama did agree to that), but we can't fool ourselves into thinking that we can hang around just abit longer and prepare the Afghans to run the country on their own either.

We should pull out all combat troops immediately, minus special forces.  We should leave the special forces there with air support to continue surgical strikes.  This will prevent the country from becoming a "safe haven" for terrorists again.

We can leave trainers in country as well if we want to try and lend the Afghan army/ police a helping hand.  We CANNOT continue to put our boys in the combat arms out on the front lines to be killed and wounded for a vague mission that has unattainable goals.

Afghanistan will make Iraq look easy.  We need to get out now.