Sliding Left?

I've always been a libertarian, small "l", for domestic things like drugs and incarceration, but otherwise pretty firmly in the hawkish/curmudgeon/South Park conservative camp. Until lately - maybe it's been my close encounter with the hereafter, but for some reason I seem to be more sympathetic to some leftie stuff. Today's example: maybe we should get out of Afghanistan.

I have to say I am mystified by Obama's designation of this as a war of necessity. Maybe his statement is just cant - he has to say it, in order to support his I'm-Not-George-W meme. (We know! We know!) Maybe he believes it; I don't. In fact I can make an argument that the war in Iraq was more necessary than one in Afghanistan. But that whole choice-necessity thing is facile, and by now pretty tedious.

I think what we are trying to do is neutralize people who want to, and have a realistic chance of, killing us (again) on a massive scale. 9/11 must never happen again. I happen to think we've done a reasonably good job of keeping it from happening again, and with our improved intelligence and technologies - especially our ability to kill individual enemies remotely - I think we will continue get better at it.

Killing Taliban in Afghanistan, on the other hand, because they are Taliban, is probably a fine thing to do. Especially for the women and children of Afghanistan. I just can't see how it has a direct bearing, however, on how we neutralize our real enemy or prevent another 9/11. So, if this is right, the war doesn't fit the objective very well, and it certainly doesn't justify the cost and time of a successful prosecution.

I would focus on how to climb down from this war and make a graceful exit. Just as we can tolerate no new 9/11, we cannot ever be in a position of evacuating our embassy on short notice and leaving supporters behind to be slaughtered, as we did in Saigon in 1975. Avoidance of that should be the objective in Afghanistan.

How? We find a reason to declare Al-Qaeda crushed and declare victory. How that? Well, finally killing Bin Laden or finding his remains would be nice. And if not that, I bet there is something else the Pashtuns and/or the Pakis could serve up if they were offered the right mixture of money and guns (in their hands, at their heads, or both). Whatever it is, we follow it up with a nice parade through Kabul, us and our allies, and we're gone. With visas and a great evacuation plan for our local friends, who I'm sure will make fine Americans.

So am I now a leftie? Who knows. Maybe just a guy who is very unwilling to see young people die except for a very, very good reason.