Five years ago today George Bush announced that Operation Enduring Freedom was underway in Afghanistan. American’s were happy to see justice taking place for the horrible attacks that happened a month before.
Five years later, here we are. One of today’s big headlines “Taliban revived in southern Afghanistan“. To the American people, the NATO troops in Afghanistan and the world, things are not going good in Afghanistan. We have seen an enormous surge in violence and the Taliban is a daily word again.
Donald Rumsfeld has a piece in Today’s Washington Post. It is the same typical spin, but there is one issue I want to bring up.
Security: The Afghan National Army has grown to more than 30,000, with approximately 1,000 soldiers added each month. The Afghan National Police now number more than 46,000. Afghan forces were successful in providing security for the two national elections held since 2004.
Really? Well how is it with such a rise in the Afghan army and with the 41,000+ NATO and US troops now there, could the Taliban, who was once nearly destroyed, make such a come back? How come things are so bad that Bill Frist, one of the Bush administration biggest supporters, is saying that the Taliban should be brought into the government?
All the spin in the world will not change the facts – We were winning in Afghanistan. Bush decided to invade Iraq (a country that had nothing to do with 9.11). That second war drained the resources and attention of the first war and now we have two wars going on that are potential quagmires.