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She called the other night and, for the first time, I did not know what to say to her.
I met my best friend, Charity, 12 years ago when she moved next door to me from a military base in Hawaii.
When we were only 20, she told me she was pregnant with her first child, and she was scared and unsure what to do. But she did know what to do.
From me, she needed a friend to listen to her fears and her uncertainty, precisely the things I needed from her when I told her I was gay.
Late this summer, as Afghanistan entered its deadliest months since the 2001 invasion, Charity sat at a military base in upstate New York, waiting for news from her husband.
Charity called me to tell me two men in Phillip’s unit were killed when an improvised explosive device, an IED, detonated in Nerkh Valley, Afghanistan.
Terrified for her husband and devastated by the deaths of two men who were friends with Phillip, her voice trembled; she had only spoken with Philip for a few brief moments and knew little of his whereabouts or his safety.
I knew not one word of comfort Charity would not see through. I had no lies to weave, no “well, at least he’s safe now” or “I’m sure he will be OK” to tell my dear friend because each statement would ring hollow and false.
The time has come to end this disastrous war in Afghanistan. Eight years on, our presence there emboldens our enemies, makes little fiscal or strategic sense and weakens our national security.
Recently, Dick Cheney accused President Obama of making America less safe, suggesting Obama is “dithering” in his decision of whether to send 40,000 more troops to Afghanistan.
Offering a response to Cheney on ABC’s “This Week,” conservative columnist George Will said, “A bit of dithering might have been in order before we went into Iraq in pursuit of non-existent weapons of mass destruction.
“For a representative of the Bush administration to accuse someone of taking too much time is missing the point. We have much more to fear in this town from hasty than from slow government action.”
What we have to fear are the people who mislead and rushed us into a war in Iraq, warning such a war would prevent an impending 9/11 redux, leading us off an Afghanistan cliff with no end in sight.
Sen. John McCain argued for an Iraq invasion nearly six months before the Bush administration and repeated the incredible lie that Saddam Hussein had ties to al-Qaeda and the 9/11.
Today, McCain sings a familiar tune, warning in an op-ed with Sen. Lindsey Graham and Joe Lieberman of the consequences if Obama does not send 40,000 more troops immediately.
“The U.S. walked away from Afghanistan once before, following the Soviet collapse,” the senators write. “The result was 9/11. We must not make that mistake again.”
The real mistake is to listen to these men or anyone else who suggested we walk away from Afghanistan and into Iraq.
Afghanistan is no longer the war of necessity Obama defined it as this spring. That country’s presidential election this summer saw massive voter fraud with nearly one million ballots discounted. Afghan President Hamid Karzai promised this weekend that a runoff election would “be better than the first round.”
That assumes the U.S. government can trust Karzai and that he had nothing to do with the fraud this summer.
Obama can send as many troops as he wants but if we do not have a trusted government to work with there, then what are our soldiers fighting for?
What Phillip is fighting for? A corrupt government deeply invested and connected to that country’s opium production that directly funds the Taliban and al-Qaeda?
And what of al-Qaeda?
Our intelligence reports state fewer than 100 al-Qaida are in Afghanistan. Vice President Biden noted in a discussion with the president and his national security advisers that we spend $30 in Afghanistan for every dollar we spend in Pakistan. “So I have a question,” Biden asked. “Al-Qaeda is almost all in Pakistan, and Pakistan has nuclear weapons.”
As Biden asked, “Does that make strategic sense?”
Does it make sense to bring our troop total to 100,000 when Gen. Petraeus’ own projections suggest it would take 20-25 troops per 1,000 Afghan residents (640,000 for a population of 32 million) to pacify that country?
No and neither does asking our brave soldiers to carry out such a disastrous policy.
$824 billion and eight years later, the time has come to put an end to this silliness. History tells tales of other countries getting mired in Afghanistan, the unconquerable country.
This column is for Charity and Phillip, for all our soldiers who fight without hesitation. This is the best I can do for them.
James is an M.A. student in screen studies and English. He received his B.A. in film studies and political science from the University of Oklahoma.
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