Why Afghanistan, Why Now.

Ya know why the Afghan war is such a problem? A conundrum? Well for starters, for seven years we pretty much forgot about it. By that I mean we fought it, but without the manpower we needed and the support for the Afghan army and government they needed. So the initial victories we saw were lost and the Taliban fought back to control in many areas. Anyone surprised that the people don't really trust us to win? So, finally a year or so ago we suddenly remembered we had a war to win in Afghanistan. It's a war that's very important for us to win. Or at least not lose. Of the last few wars we've fought in, this is perhaps the most important to us in terms of our national security. So what's wrong now? I mean Afghanistan has a 135,000 man army. That's not bad, is it? Well, it's true it has a sizable army, but they are very poorly trained. There is something like ninety percent of the military who can't read or write, even in their own language, and marksmanship is around twenty percent. Very few know how to drive and far fewer could repair a vehicle when necessary. It's pretty hard to be taken very seriously at that rate. Then there's the government. It's about as corrupt as they get. There's little support for it among the people. Recently this army (or the government) decided to fight a battle on it's own. Without any help. NATO has to step in now and save their bacon. And they don't eat bacon. Support for this war is slipping, away here in America. Problem is, we can't walk away from this one. It's a training ground for terrorists to strike at America. If we leave before there's a government and military that can fend for itself, the country would become the training camp for every terrorist in the world. Terrorism would become the GNP of the country. Isn't that what you call catch 22? Dammed if you do, dammed if you don't.