Fighting the Taliban

Photo by Tyler Hicks, NY Times

Pinned Down, A Sprint to Escape Taliban Zone

The link above is to a recent NY Times article about US forces in Afghanistan and a fight they got into in a small village in ALIABAD. It describes an ambush set up by a local village elder that the Americans had visited with. One US soldier got killed. The article has some good photos taken by Tyler Hicks of the NY Times, who was with the American Platoon for this mission. He is a brave photographer for sure.
And the soldiers are brave as well. Reading the article you can see that it's not a picnic being where they are and doing whatever it is they are trying to do.

Here's a short quote from the article that describes Aliabad:

"Afghanistan is myriad wars within a war, with varying terrain, climates, economies and insurgent groups creating a puzzle of shifting contests for influence. The Korangal Valley is the center of one of the most vicious contests of all.

Relatively few Arabs or foreigners come here, the company’s officers say. But the Korangalis, a hardened and isolated people with their own language, have managed to lock the American Army into a bloody standoff for a small space for more than three years.

The Korangalis have fought, the officers say, in part because they support the Taliban and in part because they are loggers and the Afghan government banned almost all timber cutting, putting local men out of work."

So my questions are: WHAT THE HECK ARE WE DOING OVER THERE? WHY ARE WE IN THIS KIND OF PLACE, SPENDING ALL THE MONEY WE ARE AND LOSING LIVES AND ALL THE REST?????

I respect our military. My dad was an airforce pilot so I grew up with the Vietnam and Korea wars that he participated in. I get a sense of what that's all about. But I never have understood what we are doing in places like Afghanistan, or Iraq. And if someone were to tell me that we're protecting freedom here in the US, I say that's a laugh.

I'm all for defending our own borders and responding to provocation. But I think we have no business trying to be the world's policeman, going to other people's countries and waging war. I don't get that and never will.

There are so many problems and things to work on here at home. Let's use our best and brightest here at home to work on those things and to make ourselves more agreeable to the world at large. I believe that if you treat others with respect you will get respect back... or at least be left alone.

We have MORE than retaliated for the 911 bombings. We lost 3600 approx lives in that and have been responsible for over a million deaths in Iraq alone. When do we call it EVEN? And was Iraq responsible for 911? I don't think anyone can say that anymore.