It's Time to Win the War in Afghanistan

In October 2001 coalition forces began the war in Afghanistan after nineteen hijackers crashed planes in the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. In the intial phase of the war the United States and NATO forces routed the Taliban from their seat of power. Since that time, they have been "resurrected" and now are trying to make another comeback. Al-Qaeda, the terrorist organization which was responsible for the September 11 terrorist attacks, have their training camps in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Unlike the arguments we've heard about Iraq that we shouldn't have went there, we definitely needed to attack Afghanistan because Al-Qaeda was responsible for the terrorist attacks in America.

In Afghanistan there's been several roadside bomb attacks on coalition forces. Many U.S. troops have been wounded as they're waging a major offensive to stop growing violence from Afghan insurgents. The roadside bombs are called (IED's) or improvised explosive devices. In June 2009, there was a record number of devices set (736). The last four months there's been an increasing number of IED's set off. Army General Stanley McChrystal said in an email to USA Today that the IED's are the number one threat to the troops.

It's time the Pentagon comes up with a game plan. We've been in this war for almost 8 years and it's time the generals devise a strategy to win this war. This war should've been won when Bush was president. However, President Obama doesn't have any agenda for ending this war either.

When you go to war, there must be an objective and a strategy to win. It's ridiculous to be sending troops to war when there's no strategy to win. It takes its toll on the troops, on their families, the American psyche, and the nation's treasury. Whatever happened to the day when we went to war and had a strategy to win and exit as quick as possible? The last war we won was World War II. We don't need to be stuck in the hornet's nest in Afghanistan forever.

I believe we need to gear up our forces to go on the offensive again. We need another bombing campaign. We need to send air forces to bomb all the Al-Qaeda hideouts as well as wipe out any of the areas where the insurgents are hiding. Our forces need to be bombing the Helmand province where the Taliban is hiding. We need to cut off all the supplies of the IED's to the insurgents. If Iran is behind sending the IED's to the insurgents, we need to be conducting air strikes against Iran as well. When you're fighting guerilla warfare, you can't just rely on ground troops to conduct the fighting. We need a massive air campaign to wipe out any laboratories that are building nuclear weapons. War is serious business. Yes, it's brutal, but war is not about making friends, it's about breaking down strongholds, conquering and winning. America also needs to be hunting for Osama bin Laden and bring him to justice. He's the one responsible for all those deaths on 9/11. Why haven't we been agressive to see that Osama bin Laden is brought to justice? It's always important to find the perpetrator and bring them to justice.

A few months ago, President Obama had ordered 21,000 U.S. servicemembers there to provide better security. Given the fact the Taliban has made a major comeback and many roadside bombs are being used against the coalition forces, providing security forces won't solve the problem. When a person is diagnosed with cancer, you can give them medicine to treat the symptoms of the cancer, but it won't eradicate the cancer within the patient. Providing security forces to Afghanistan won't solve the problem when the Taliban is spread out in different places. They must be eradicated. Until Al-Qaeda and the Taliban are eradicated, the situation in Afghanistan will seriously continue to worsen.