A correspondent writes:

"Our troops in Afghanistan are being wasted on a cultural group that is in the main unworthy of spilled American blood and the expenditure of U.S. financial resources."

My answer:

I share your feelings of discouragement and discontent about the state of the world. Have things ever been worse?

And every morning I have to listen to Joe Scarborough complain about the cost in blood and treasure of the counter-insurgency in Afghanistan. One is reminded of Senator Reid's memorable announcement vis-a-vis Iraq. Reid stood up in the well of the U.S. Senate and boldly proclaimed that "The war is lost!" as though he was an advance man for Al Qaeda. Can there be any doubt that defeatist talk like this is a boon to the insurgents? If he'd said this during WWII he'd have been lined up against a wall and shot.

I say, "Give the surge a chance."

Democracies thrive on challenge. E.g. the Nazi submarine menace in the early years of WWII. Furthermore, do you think Al Qaeda, which is actively seeking loose nukes in Russia and Pakistan, is any less of a threat than Nazi Germany? Islamic terrorists are sustained by fantasies of world domination: if we retreat in Afghanistan it will not only fuel their wildest fantasies and add momentum to global jihad, it will confirm that the West (and specifically America) hasn't the stomach for total commitment, and provide terrorists with an impregnable base of operations, a sanctuary where Islamic fascism can continue to nurture itself and grow in strength.

How's this for a scenario? Iran or North Korea develops a nuclear device, or merely a dirty bomb, and provides it to Al Qaeda, which ships it in an intermodal freight container to a major U.S. port where it is electronically detonated. Casualties would be measured in the hundreds of thousands and the target city would be uninhabitable for generations.

Unthinkable? To you and me maybe, but not in the infantile fantasy world of the Islamic jihadist.

We are at war again. Understand your enemy.

Wm. B. Fankboner