Thanks for a thoughtful answer. I agree that Afghanistan should be stable and that a society should be built from the ashes that have been left. I don't agree that we should be doing this. Our fight was NOT with the Taliban even though they are abusive, etc.. al Qaueda, who our fight was with, has been all but destroyed in Afghanistan. Even if that is part of the goal, defeating the Taliban, it won't happen unless we attack another sovereign nation, Pakistan. The Taliban is being sheltered and armed in Pakistan. At some point we have to ask ourselves if we are biting off way more than we can chew with all of these Muslim nations. At what point are muslims, in general, going to decide this is nothing more than a continuation of the crusades?
As to preventing another 9/11, well good luck with that. Pounding the rubble in Afghanistan is not going to do that. The nest attack will likely be staged from Somalia or Yemen (where al Qaeda actually is).
Moral thing to do? Well, I guess you have to decide on our nations morals as a whole and define that before you can make that statement. Do you know what "jihad" actually means as defined in Islam? It is the personal struggle to achieve goodness. Most Muslims define jihad (in Chiristian terms) as thier daily struggle against sin. I think we have driven the point home quite deliberately that terrorism won't be tolerated, but to the people that need to get the message, it means nothing.
Bruce Hoffman is simply wrong. 100 al Qaeda in Afghanistan are not going to be able to pull off another 9/11. I'm damned tired of losing Americans to something that we, as a people, know so little about. This damned war should have ended at Tora Bora.
