We Have Lost Our Moorings

Following a cowardly attack on the United States on 9-11-2001 that killed over 3,000 unarmed civilians and destroyed millions of dollars of property, the United States had a very defined enemy. The enemy was a group of Islamic radicals living in Afghanistan who practiced terror against unarmed civilians. These fanatics had a camp in Afghanistan where they taught young Islamic men terrorist tactics with the blessings of the Taliban government of Afghanistan. This group was, and is known as Al Queda. Its leader was in September of 2001 and continues to be, Osama bin Laden.


The United States had a clear legal and moral right to invade Afghanistan, to destroy the terrorist group that attacked it, to destroy the government of Afghanistan that condoned such activity and to seek, capture and destroy the leadership of the militant group that planned and initiated the attack against it.


Our mission was clear and our nation moved with extreme efficiency. Our troops made short work of the Taliban army and government. Al Queda offered little military resistance to our military and fled in a hasty and forced retreat into the mountains of Afghanistan known as the Tora Bora region with our troops in hot pursuit. Our troops were on the brink of of completing a circle around the fleeing enemy leaving Al Queda trapped in Afghanistan isolated in the mountains where it could be totally eliminated by our troops as our army meticulously closed the noose surrounding the entire leadership of Al Queda. We had the leadership of Al Queda right where we wanted them. The very men who planned the 9-11 attack on our country were within our grasp.


At this point, things suddenly turned terribly wrong. Instead of completing our planned encirclement of Al Queda, the troops needed to perform this task were taken out of Afghanistan and sent to Iraq. Instead of being caught by our encircling army, the leadership of Al Queda was able to escape into the Tora Bora heights, which is partly in Pakistan and partially in Afghanistan, where they allegedly remain free to this day. The truth of the matter is we do not know precisely where the leadership of Al Quesa is at this point other than they are free and not in our custody.


I do not know the reason for moving our troops out of Afghanistan and taking them to Iraq. I have my opinions but that is not relevant. The fact is we did not finish our initial task in Afghanistan and we have yet to recover from that error and we still do not have a clear military policy to take its place.


The American public has never had a clear statement from Washington as to why it took our troops into Iraq and abandoned our attack on Al Queda in Afghanistan. Our lack of a clear plan has been a plague on us from our initial invasion of Iraq. There has been at least five different reasons given for our being in Iraq: (1) Rid it of Weapons of Mass Destruction; (2) Rid it of Saddam (3) Help Iraq Formulate a Constitution, as a by product Help it form a Democratic Government; (4)
Help it form a Self Defense Force; and (5 ) Help it Control its Own Destiny, as a by product, Help it Become a Sovereign Nation. Five separate reasons sounds like no plan at all. It reminds me of a bunch of kids playing football the street making up plays as they go along.

Our military has done all of the things asked of it by our government at a terrible cost to our young men and women in uniform. Iraq has now declared itself an independent and sovereign nation and has its own army. Yet, our troops are still in Iraq. Every time we announce a time frame to bring our troops home, an emergency seems to arise in Iraq that holds up or delays or changes or postpones our plans on bringing our troops home.


In the meantime, we are pouring more troops into Afghanistan to help fight the Taliban. Excuse me, but didn't we defeat the Taliban in 2003 over six years ago? How is it we let the Taliban morph into a new group with new leaders unconnected to the old group and gain control of nearly one-half of Afghanistan? Until recently, I have heard nothing about our troops in Afghanistan going after Al Queda who was the group that perpetrated the attacks on the Twin Towers in 2001. Once again, we have lost our moorings and we seem to be moving without a plan connected to the parties that caused this entire national migraine.


I think it is time for us to fall back, regroup and rethink this entire matter. Are we after the people who inflicted the attack on us on 9-11-2001 or are we suddenly protecting every corrupt form of government that happens to call itself a democracy? If protecting a corrupt form of government is our goal, we are doomed to failure and rightly so. Our moral and legal right to be in Afghanistan is predicated on our seeking justice for the harm inflicted upon us by Al Queda on 9- 11-2001 not upon the type of government allegedly chosen by a corrupt Afghan government following that event.


History shows that Alexander the Great, The Ottoman Empire (An Islamic Empire), The British Empire (At its zenith), and The Russian Empire could not conquer Afghanistan. History can be a valuable teacher if we pay attention to it.

I believe we should do what we set out to do in 2003 and that is go after Al Queda and its leadership and those who support it in Afghanistan. I do not believe the Pakistani government will oppose helping us in this limited fashion. The Pakistani and Afghani governments will both gain by ridding themselves of a thorn in their flesh just as we will gain by obtaining justice against those who killed so many innocent Americans. By going back to our initial plan, we will limit the number of men we deploy to Afghanistan, limit the area in which they are to be involved, limit the time our men are there and provide our men a clear moral and legal purpose for being there. We will once again have a goal our troops understand and a clear purpose they can achieve.

This blog was originally written by John F. Jackson on September 17, 2009 and brought to this blog on March 5, 2010.