Obama To Continue "Endless War"

The president announced last night that he would withdraw 10,000 troops from Afghanistan this summer, and by September 2012 (14 months from now) he says he will withdraw another 23,000 American soldiers. But don't get too excited. That just takes care of his second troop surge (announced in December 2009). It still leaves over 65,000 soldiers in Afghanistan -- about twice as many as were there when President Obama took office. And the soonest that the rest can be expected to come home is the end of 2014 (another 3 1/2 years).

That's a long way from Obama's campaign promise of bringing the American troops home from Afghanistan by the end of 2011. And there are some who want to leave a significant amount of American soldiers in that country far past 2014. These are the fools that still believe "nation-building" can be accomplished with military force -- even though that has been disproven by our misadventures in Vietnam and Iraq (where 50,000 troops still remain).

Since he took office, President Obama seems to have been listening only to the war-lovers. He keeps telling us that progress is being made in Afghanistan, but that view is disputed by the U.N. aid organizations trying to help the citizens of that war-torn country. They report that the security situation in Afghanistan is getting worse -- not better. It is very doubtful that another 3 1/2 years of war, with fewer soldiers, is going to accomplish anything that couldn't be accomplished in the first 10 years of war in Afghanistan.

This makes me wonder, does the president really think he can rebuild Afghanistan with the American military? Or is he just playing politics with the lives of our soldiers (and innocent Afghan citizens)? Is he afraid he'd be accused of not being strong enough against terrorism if he kept his campaign promise and withdrew our troops by the end of this year? If so, he should read the results of the new Pew Research Poll.

The survey (conducted June 15th through June 19th of 1,502 adults nationwide with a 3.5 point margin of error) shows that 56% of the population would support a withdrawal of our troops as soon as possible -- including 67% of Democrats and 57% of Independents -- while only 39% say we should stay until the country is stabilized. This is very different from a year ago, when the same poll showed 40% wanted our troops withdrawn and 53% supported continuing the war.

The American people are tired of this endless war. And they are starting to realize that the $2 billion a week we are spending there is the equivalent of throwing money away, because nothing lasting is being accomplished.