The Afghanistan Generation
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The other day President Trump informed the American population and the world that he is going to send an additional 4000 troops to Afghanistan. The war in Afghanistan has been going on now for nearly 16 years with no end at all in sight. This war is one that seems unwinnable as the conditions for victory can’t be applied. Afghanistan is nothing resembling a country that those of us in the west would recognize or understand. So when many say they want to see it become a stable country or even really refer to it as a country, at all, it is hard to believe they have ever been there. The place is broken down to, officially, provinces that for the most part are run by warlords with government troops usually on the warlord payroll. The government troops, not on the warlord’s payroll, only control very little in Afghanistan and the majority of that is parts of Kabul. Outside of the capital the central government has little to no influence especially when pretty much the rest of the population doesn’t even know where or what Kabul is. Even different military and law enforcement outfits in the Afghanistan government dislike each other enough to commit violence against each other.
An argument we will often hear is how we need to look after our American interests over there. What interests would those be in Afghanistan? Where does Afghanistan play into the interests of the United States? The argument that was made nearly two decades ago was that the Afghan government harbored terrorists that had attacked the United States. Once that issue was solved what interests do we have left there? Do we now need to rebuild a nation that, before we arrived was about one step out of the stone age? No we don’t. We don’t need to spend anymore money and lose anymore American lives in Afghanistan.
We have been in Afghanistan for 16 years this fall. There are young men and women now that will deploy to this country soon that know nothing but our country at war. I had this conversation with some couple that had kids the age of 10 and 7 years old, years ago on a flight. We are now raising a generation of kids that know nothing but our country at war. These kids cannot remember a time our country was at peace in their life time. This is not the generation we want to be raising because soon enough they will be the ones making the policies that direct our country. If we should always be thinking of the children perhaps we should do them the service of showing them how well our country can get along in times of peace. I pray that the kids of the couple I talked to on the flight years ago never have to deploy but that if they do decided to volunteer for the armed services that they do return home safely. This generation coming up deserves better from us, we cannot fail them. We can live in a world with more peace or more war. The vote here at Coffee Break Liberty is for a world of more peace. This is a pro peace movement.
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Keep that coffee warm for us.
LWS
