Eight Years Later

“Our country is that spot to which our heart is bound.”
~ Voltaire

Eight years ago, nineteen Islamo-fascists hijacked four commercial airliners, crashed two of them into the twin World Trade Center towers in New York City, one into the Pentagon, and one, Flight 93, was diverted by a band of heroes in a field in Pennsylvania, killing everyone onboard.  Eight years ago, nearly 3000 Americans were cremated in the streets of Manhattan and our nation’s Capitol.  Eight years ago, we came to know the name Osama Bin Laden.  It became personal.

We haven’t forgotten all this, have we?  Sometimes, I think we have.  Today, high school kids and metrosexuals wear keffiyehs with little regard for its meaning. Do you remember where you were that day?  I distinctly remember where I was.  After that day, my life was never again the same.  My commitment to “support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies foreign and domestic” began to have a much deeper meaning.  As a result, I started paying attention.

I have been silent for a while on foreign policy and national security matters, because, believe it or not, I mostly agree with the President.  This may come as a shock to you, since I didn’t spend $500 to fly 3000 miles round trip on November 4 and vote in my district to praise the guy.  That expense was an investment for the future, because if I had not voted, my words would be just that: only words.  On domestic policy, I have hammered the President on this website, while supporting and defending the Constitution, and remaining loyal only unto God and the country which I have had the privilege to serve.

On foreign policy matters, though, I feel the President has it just about right.  This morning, at a Wreath Laying Ceremony at the Pentagon, he made a remarkable speech, saying:

Scripture teaches us a hard truth.  The mountains may fall and the earth may give way; the flesh and the heart may fail.  But after all our suffering, God and grace will “restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast.”  So it is – so it has been for these families.  So it must be for our nation.

Let us renew our resolve against those who perpetrated this barbaric act and who plot against us still.  In defense of our nation we will never waver; in pursuit of Al Qaeda and its extremist allies, we will never falter.

I agree, Mr. President.  I hate to say it, but the pursuit of Al Qaeda is a truly forgotten effort among the American public.  The fact that, eight years later, Bin Laden remains free, stands as our greatest failure.  What should we do, though? At this moment, the war in Afghanistan is shifting, and our goals are unclear. Here we are, again, entering an era of mid-wartime ambivalence, with polls showing Americans are beginning to turn against our efforts in Afghanistan.

A recent Washington Post-ABC News poll reports, “42 percent of Americans say the United States is winning in Afghanistan; about as many, 36 percent, say it is losing.”  What is striking about the poll is the marked partisan divide: “Although 60 percent of Americans approve of how Obama has handled the situation in Afghanistan, his ratings among liberals have slipped, and majorities of liberals and Democrats alike now, for the first time, solidly oppose the war and are calling for a reduction in troop levels.”  Roughly 70 percent of Democrats say the war has not been worth its costs, and about 70 percent of Republicans support it.  President Obama’s slipping support among his own caucus may prove to be a large challenge in the days to come.

The supporters of our previous foreign efforts set the “spread of democracy” as a goal.  Afghanistan is a curious place to re-embark on this mission, with a recent uptick in violence, and a presidential election this week rife with fraud.  These truths are undoubtedly influencing the sentiments of the left, and I understand why. It is not disloyal to want to conserve American lives.  Dissent is patriotic; however, it is idiotic to plainly reject any military action.  Many on the left end up in this camp, but we’ll leave that for another day.  Let’s move forward.

General Stanley McChrystal, President Obama’s hand-picked commander of U.S. and international forces in Afghanistan, said today that while he sees no sign of a major Al Qaeda presence in Afghanistan, he will likely ask for more troops from Congress, stating that he believes our presence there has kept America safe in the wake of 9/11.  General McChrystal told the Associated Press:

“We have not been struck again in the United States, and I think the strikes that would have hit across the world — not just in Europe or the United States but I think also in much of the Muslim world — I think have been prevented.  I can’t prove that because you can’t prove a negative, but I certainly strongly believe that is the case.”

I agree with General McChrystal’s assessment.  The goals, though, are a bit confusing, and he will have a hard time getting Congress to approve a troop surge in Afghanistan.  I do believe American troop presence has kept America safe, but troop presence will not help to spread democracy to any nation we might occupy, let alone Afghanistan, commonly referred to as “the graveyard of empires.”

Democracy is not spread like a sexually transmitted disease to other cultures that are void of the civil liberties required to fundamentally alter an entire governing system in favor of freedom. Capturing or killing Bin Laden should be our top priority; past that, spreading democracy through “nation-building” is not a trait our U.S. military possesses, nor should.  Don’t be confused by popular terms such as “integrating” or “rebalancing” a nation, which essentially mean the same thing.

Our nation’s leaders owe our military an honest assessment of our goals and capabilities in Afghanistan.  In the words of Milton Bearden, three months after 9/11, “The United States must proceed with caution – or end up on the ash heap of Afghan history.”

Eight years later, the greatest service we could give our troops is to remember what happened that day, learn from our past mistakes, and define a set of clear, achievable goals.  President Obama must stand strong in the face of adversity to achieve the singular mission of bringing Bin Laden to justice.  I, for one, support him in these efforts.