Have Obama and Romney Forgotten Afghanistan?
08.14.2012 at 05:28pm
Have Obama and Romney Forgotten Afghanistan? By Dexter Filkens at The New Yorker.
… neither of them knows what to do about the place. In a mere twenty-eight months, the United States is scheduled to stop fighting, and every day brings new evidence that the Afghan state that is supposed to take over is a failing, decrepit enterprise.
What possible electoral advantage is there for either candidate to raise the issue of leaving Afghanistan? None.
The pain of leaving is too high and may start a debate why. Especially when a national Taliban victory is a possibility and at a minimum the Taliban could rule over much of the country where the USA and allies have paid a high price in blood.
It is the difficulty in leaving that keeps us there.
While it may be politically harmful to discuss Afghanistan, it is a discussion that must take place. A simplistic approach would be to “declare” victory and get out.
One would suppose that during a war the future course of that conflict would be a major issue of political debate. As stated neither the President nor the presumptive Republican nominee have much to say about their plans in the conflict. I think the more interesting question is not whether Obama and Romney have forgotten Afghanistan but are Obama and Romney ignoring Afghanistan? If they are, and I think most people would agree that they are, then how can the American public let them? It is a sad day for the Republic when the public does not care about the wars of the nation. But who can blame the general public? Today, 16 Aug 12, a Black Hawk helicopter was lost with seven American DOD members. Thus far, it has barely been mentioned in the mainstream media. The distance of the conflict and the war weariness of the media seem to have made the sacrifices of the DOD less recognized every day. With only one percent of the population in the uniformed services the general public has less and less interface with members of the military and has become divorced from the consequences of continued warfare. The loss of the draft and the move to an all-volunteer force has allowed the nation to remain at war with little or no impact on the general population. Thus, today’s political leaders can ignore the issue of Afghanistan, much to the disaster of the future health of the American Republic.