Pearl Harbor to V-J day: 1347 days. 9/11 to today: 1380 days.
With that in mind, let's talk about the war that pretty much everyone supported: the fight against the Taliban in Afghanistan.
In today's Washington Post, there's an article about the continued resistance that US is facing from the Taliban. That's right, while we've been focused on Iraq, and while we've diverted forces from Afghanistan, the Taliban has been rebuilding. Evidence? Just ask a man on the ground:
"I thought the Taliban had fallen," [Army Specialist] Conlon marveled recently. "I thought this was going to be a peacekeeping mission."
The Taliban have long experience in slowly, patiently defeating foreign occupiers. The Soviets had a huge force there in the '80s and finally had to admit that they could not occupy the country and left. After they left, the Taliban regime oppressed women and children, and gave terroists like Bin Laden free reign.
Instead of buttoning down Afghanistan, and concentrating our forces and energy on defeating the Taliban once and for all time, we took our eye off the ball. The Taliban remain a threat to Afghanistan and we will be there for years trying to rout them from the mountains, where they've had a couple of years to hide and regroup.
The Bush administration's incompetence has let real terrorists regroup and re-arm. While Saddam sits in jail, the leaders of the country that sheltered Al Quaeda, as well as Bin Laden himself, are at large. Aren't these the people we want to bring to justice?
