Afghanistan "War" Perspective

I hope that everyone has an opinion on our adventure in Afghanistan, but that it is an opinion based on factual knowledge, sound reasoning, and through a thoughtful process. Here is what I believe.

I'll call our adventure in Afghanistan a "conflict" for easy reference because I believe "wars" are between nations; neither Al Qaeda nor the Taliban are nations. In Afghanistan (and Pakistan) we are pursuing international criminals who have, and still are, committing crimes against humanity. We need to continue this conflict and enhance/increase our efforts toward the annihilation of Al Qaeda and the demise of the Taliban.

We, with our allies, must continue the pursuit of Al Qaeda-Taliban (AQ-T) until there is no longer an AQ-T or it is no longer a presence of consequence. If that requires us going into Pakistan to "acquire" AQ-T then so be it. Certainly, Pakistan's agreement and assistance in acquiring AQ-T is highly desirable--but not absolutely necessary; we must be rid of AQ-T.

How will we know when AQ-T is no longer a presence of consequence? Obviously there is no objective way to know this (a certain period of time without an incident is not absolute evidence of none or a reduced presence of AQ-T) but a strong subjective human intelligence of empirical evidence of demise or deminishment would or could lead to a positive assessment.

President Obama has laid out a strong plan, a firm enabling policy, to end our Afghanistan presence. This plan is essentially a continuance of President Bush's surge initiative but with the addition of a plan segment to increase Afghan security through the training of increased numbers military and police. When the Afghan are prepared to defend their country and protect the continuance of the Afghan government then we should, and must, leave.