Ed Koch: We Cannot Win In Afghanistan And Should Withdraw As Soon As Possible

Credit: Vimooz.com

We Cannot Win In Afghanistan And Should Withdraw As Soon As Possible
By Ed Koch

Rather than coming to our aid, our NATO Allies are abandoning us in droves. Most of them are planning to leave Afghanistan as soon as they can. Even today, we provide the vast majority of troops on the ground. Meanwhile, we have seen our casualties mount with deaths now over 1,000, 97 of which occurred this month alone. Further undermining our efforts is the fact that the Karzai government is widely unpopular among Afghans. On the June 27th edition of "Meet The Press," reporter Tom Ricks, commenting on the unwillingness of Afghans to accept the Karzai government even while rejecting the Taliban, said, "I remember reading an interview with an Afghan villager. The reporter said to him, 'What did you think of the Taliban vs. what did you think of the police sent by Kabul?' He said, 'Well, the Taliban were pretty mean to us; they were pretty rough. We didn't like them. But when the police from Kabul came, the first thing they did was take our little boys and rape them.' You've got to deal with this Afghan government. Our biggest single problem in Afghanistan is not the Taliban. They are a consequence of our problem. Our problem in Afghanistan is the Kabul government."Besides the Kabul government, we are impeded by new rules of engagement that will not allow us to win. The New York Times of June 23rd carried a lengthy article on those rules and reported how frustrated the American soldiers are, believing they are being denied needed support from our air force because of the fear of injuring civilians. We are doing to ourselves what the United Nations is trying to do to Israel - imposing a doctrine of proportional response. The lives of our soldiers are no longer our prime concern. We will not provide maximum protection if doing so could damage our relationship with President Karzai or other Afghan political figures. If we won't protect our troops as our first priority, then along with other reasons, we cannot win, and we should get out now. READ MORE...