This Saturday, President Barack Obama used his final press conference before leaving the NATO summit to cement his intention to have the United States remain in Afghanistan until at least 2014. This announcement was disturbing for several reasons and confirms the sad truth that, even though the war in Afghanistan is a lost cause, politicians will continue the exploit our soldiers for political or economical gain.
First, the announcement came just days after Afghan President Hamid Karzai urged the U.S. to start withdrawing immediately from his country. Karzai argues that the United States needs to withdraw and stop its night raids on Afghan citizens' homes because it helps the Taliban's efforts more than it harms them.
The newest International Council on Security and Development polls claim that about 92 percent of young Afghan men in Kandahar and Helmand provinces know nothing about Sept. 11. Another 43 percent can't find anything good to say about democracy, either. These disturbing numbers supports the ever-growing belief that any war efforts made by the U.S. Army will be rejected by the majority of Afghan citizens and their government and will be a horrible waste of taxpayers' money.
Furthermore, the announcement is even more disturbing because just a year ago at a U.S. Military Academy in New York, Obama announced that the U.S. would begin withdrawing troops from Afghanistan in July of 2011. Three more years might not sound like a lot in the ""forever war"" but wait until you see its price tag: You'll wave goodbye to another estimated $125 billion dollars of taxes.
Perhaps the most puzzling aspects of this increased withdrawal strategy is the action that occurred just days before it. Last Friday, President Obama started sending in U.S. tanks into Afghanistan. Actually, the tanks look eerily similar to the Soviet Army tanks that occupied Afghanistan 25 years ago. It looks like we're starting to use a few military strategies from the old Soviet playbook.
One of the most powerful images towards the end of the Cold War was the Soviet tanks rolling out of Afghanistan.
America had quietly equipped the Afghan people with the weapons they needed to defeat Russian tanks and helicopters that were killing civilian Afghans every day. It's a tragic irony that the civilians we helped save from the Soviet Army just 25 years ago are now being killed or subjected to dangerous night raids by our own U.S. government.
A new Quinnipiac poll found 50 percent of American voters think the U.S. should not be involved in Afghanistan, this being the first time so many voters have opposed the war.
So, why are we continuing a war when the majority of U.S. voters, the Afghan people and their government want us to leave? Why are we following in the Soviet Union's footsteps? The sad reality is a mixture of two reasons.
First, military and oil contractors are some of the most powerful lobbyists in Washington and they love the idea of a never-ending war because it leads to never ending profits.
You can almost hear the shouts of glee after the President's announcement from the headquarters of companies such as Bechtel and Halliburton as they undoubtedly will be first in line to reach into the pockets of the American tax payer to collect billions.
The second reason for the increased deadline is a political one: The problem of admitting our mistake. Our government's foreign policy has become a demented game where neither team wants to play with a kid who doesn't follow the rules; even if the rules are absurdly dangerous and unethical.
Presidents Obama, Bush or any after the Cold War couldn't stop the military contractors even if they wanted to. The lobbyists fund the elections and have a great deal of influence on who has power at the end of the day. It'd be near impossible to win the presidency without their blessing.
The president may claim that it's a frustrating but necessary action to increase the deadline to 2014. By ""necessary"" he actually means necessary to his re-election in 2012. Cutting the military budget or showing signs of abandoning the war is simply off limits in today's two-party system.
At the end of the day, President Obama has to make a very hard decision: Who will be the last soldier to die for a mistake? A decision like that will haunt you, maybe even break you. Unfortunately, those are the kind of decisions that you have to make as the leader of a country. If you can't make them, why worry about securing your second term in office? Why wait to pass it off to the next guy if the time in-between is going to lead to more deaths?
The president needs to stop worrying about the 2012 election or the industrial military complex's quarterly profits and start thinking about the first soldier's life that he's going to save with his decision. The day he makes that decision is the day we can start to believe in the change that he promised us two years ago.
Mike Kujak is a sophomore intending to major in journalism. We welcome all feedback. Please send responses to opinion@dailycardinal.com.
