The Winds of Change

It often surprises me how quickly the winds of change blow in our political arena. I was reading in the news that the latest polls show that popular opinion is turning against the War in Afghanistan and that more Americans believe that it was a mistake to have gone to war in that country in 2001. What is most galling to me is that the majority of people who are likely against the war now are the same ones who were shouting slogans of support for Bush when he proposed invading the country a scant two months after the attacks of 9/11. At that time support for capturing (or killing) Osama bin Laden were at an all time high and it seemed to be the right thing to do. But after bin Laden managed to escape from Tora Bora due to delays in the chain of command figuring out what they wanted to do, enthusiasm for the war stymied and eventually turned to Iraq.

So here we are a decade later (and two years past the campaigns for President in 2008) and while the withdrawal from Iraq is underway, the escalation of the war in Afghanistan is leaving a bitter taste in a lot of mouths; especially of those who were shouting from the rooftops (and tea kettles) in 2008 that "cutting and running" was an unfathomable option to even contemplate. So what's changed? I personally don't see much to have changed on the surface from 2001 to now. That's not to imply that our soldiers who have fought (and died) in Afghanistan have done so in vain but it seems that the general objectives that have been in the public's eyes have remained just that... general. While the pie in the sky hope is to eventually have a stable form of government in power in Afghanistan, I think one of the key difficulties will be the fact that while democracy in Afghanistan is a noble goal, it may not be achievable given the attitudes of those living in the country outside of Kabul.

So until those elements that continue to fight Allied forces are defeated, actually achieving something resembling victory will be difficult to come by and in keeping with their unwritten but strictly adhered to party platform, opponents of the President seem to continuously project a story that anything the President has done has been in error. Surprising considering the decision to escalate the war was something many critics supported before Obama became President. Now I don't know about the rest of you but I feel a bit insulted by that. I mean to me that is insinuating that what we as individuals think doesn't matter but what the party we support says is what we should believe. I mean forget that the whole reason that the War in Afghanistan was started was to attack those who supported the attack on our country on 9/11. Suddenly it's gone from that to being a war that only Obama wants. I'm sorry but I'm not so short minded as to forget that this was a war started during the Bush Administration.

But be that as it may. Maybe it's just a sign of the times. September 11th will have occurred a decade ago next year. That's a long time for most people. For most of us it will be the defining moment in our lives and in the history of the country but for others it seems to be nothing more than a footnote; a platform on which to stand when it is politically beneficial. I'm not saying that people should blindly support Obama's decisions as they often blindly supported Bush over the course of eight years, but at least let's not let the fact that things aren't as wonderful as we'd like them to be be the reason we don't support a course of action. If we felt strong enough to declare that entering into war in Afghanistan was the right thing to do nine years ago then nothing should have changed because the problems that were in existence then are still in existence. And if we feel that now it isn't worth the time, effort and most especially, if it isn't worth the lives being lost, then we need to roll the blame to all those who are responsible and not the most convenient target.