Recommended Reading

Afghanistan and Pakistan are in the minds of many Americans recently, especially the President and The Joint Chiefs as they grapple with the lose-lose decision about whether to send more troops, and how many, to push back insurgent Taliban fighters and Al Qaeda sympathizers. The notion of getting out seems to be off the table and so Afghanistan is being called the "good war" or words to that effect. There is nothing good about it. It's a boondoggle of the nth degree.

The huge mistake undertaken during the Bush administration was to pursue this as an under-manned military operation. Essentially what we have is a security issue best left to law enforcement. Now that we've put a stick in the hornet's nest, we must swat the angry hornets as they attack from all sides. The venom from the stinging is building to point where we will eventually have to flee. Ultimately we'll have no viable prescence and the cycle will begin anew.

The 9/11 hijackers, who were provided a training camp in the mountainous border region, were neither Afghani or Pakistani. 15 of the 19 were Saudi's.

So we did what any country would do. Attacked the host country, Afghanistan, and declared war on Iraq. WTF!

Politics and military strategy aside, conflicts always provide personal tales of misery, fear, terror and courage. The series of articles "Held By The Taliban" by David Rohde, in the New York Times this week is absolutely incredible, compelling reading. I've been reading the print version each day this week. It's difficult to imagine how I might fare, faced with the notion of my imminent decapitation.