Why are we in Afghanistan for the long haul?

[rug]

By Eugene Robinson, Published: May 3

Show of hands: Does anybody really understand the U.S. policy in Afghanistan? Can anyone figure out how we’re supposed to stay the course and bring home the troops at the same time?

I’m at a loss, even after President Obama’s surprise trip to the war zone. The president’s televised address from Bagram air base raised more questions than it answered. Let’s start with the big one: Why?

According to Obama, “the United States and our allies went to war to make sure that al-Qaeda could never use this country to launch attacks against us.” I would argue that U.S. and NATO forces have already done all that is humanly possible toward that end.

The Taliban government was deposed and routed. Al-Qaeda was first dislodged and then decimated, with “over 20 of their top 30 leaders” killed, according to the president. Osama bin Laden was tracked to his lair in Pakistan, shot dead and buried at sea. To the extent that al-Qaeda still poses a threat, it comes from affiliate organizations in places such as Yemen and from the spread of poisonous jihadist ideology. Al-Qaeda’s once-extensive training camps in Afghanistan have long been obliterated, and the group’s presence in the country is minimal.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/leaving-yet-staying-in-afghanistan/2012/05/03/gIQADCB1zT_story.html

[DJ13]

1. Thats an easy one

To protect the flow of poppies into the illicit drug market.

[Gregorian]

2. Because the military industry is a big part of our economy?

I'm doing research for a product I'm helping to develop. It's always amazing to run into some strange new thing that is part of a jet fuel tank, or some such thing, that I would never have imagined. $200 per cubic inch for something to keep the fluid from sloshing in the wings of an f-22.

So there's your answer.