Because from all the media reports I’ve ever read, Bin Laden nor Omar never stepped foot in Iraq.

You ask what does victory look like? The fact is, we won the war. Victory is achieved. We are just dithering over what our responsabilities are now to Afghanastan and what impact it will have on our future security. We and our allies destroyed Germany and for years afterward we, with our allies, occupied it until it could slowly build itself back up again. What is it now? A fast and valued ally. Maybe we should stop considering our destructive Middle Eastern foreign policy of the 80’s. You know, were we just run in, blow stuff up, and leave a giant mess behind. If memory serves me correctly, that is what put a man like Bin Laden in power.

Remember people, this is Afghanastan not Iraq. Please try to seperate those two in your heads when you formulate your opinions. It is too easy to lump them together as both being a mistake. Afghanastan was not a mistake.

I met a guy in July, just 2 months before he died. He worked as a greeter on the observation floor of the twin towers. He had the personality and smile to great thousands of people from all over the world every day. He was a young guy, 25ish with his entire life ahead of him. As it turned out that terrible September morning, just 2 months after I spoke with him, he died as a result of an airplane slamming into his office building. I will remember his face for as long as I live.

This war has gotten mucky, lengthy and it’s my opinion that it’s a result of Americans, both public and private, losing their resolve and their ability to comprehend the total cost. Not only are the victims of Sept. 11th casualties, so are all that have been lost fighting to remove the threat. We’ve been in it far too long to just up and walk away. We’ve paid a steep price to seek out and destroy the people responsible. For all of this cost, what have we to show for it?

Binladen is still at large for lack of proof of death, and his zealots are everywhere. You can’t scare a snake to death, you have to cut it’s head off. Him and his organization are still thriving.

The original goal to get him and his followers is a goal lost..even before the current President took office. The political machine’s fiscal stupidity combined with the public’s lack of stomach and fortitude have allowed this war to drag. The cost is outrageous!

For that young man who’s life was taken from him and all that have gone with or since him from the same story…whatever it takes, no matter how long it takes, no matter what the financial costs…

We must attain the original goal and we must destroy the people who’ve struck at us, or we must accept that it’s only a matter of time before we are struck again, with a vengence.

And what DOES victory look like here? If we get the heads of the terrorist organizations, is that success? If we shove an elected government on a populace suffering from generations of learned helplessness and won’t be able to maintain an honestly elected government – we can’t even manage that here!

Seems like a question that President Obama should have answered last night. I don’t think he’s got his eye on victory though, and our country is at greater risk because of that lack of focus.

If we withdraw from Afghanistan without dismantling the Taliban and the terror bases then we can expect the terrorists to regroup and strike the US and our allies again. I’m not a strategic expert on the war, but it seems clear to me that victory would be to eliminate the terror breeding ground and stabilize the region for the Afghan government. When that’s done the Afghan’s can take control of their own country and most of our troops will stand down, with some remaining to measure and defend ongoing success.

Without victory, Obama’s domestic agenda will put all of us at greater risk, and that’s why funding the war should be a priority. With the mountain of debt Obama is building up, another 9/11 would devastate our shaky economy, collapsing it under the enormous weight of government healthcare, higher taxes, mandatory paid sick leave, card check, etc.

-Assurance that they will not be a terrorist safe haven.
-They will not attack us directly.
-They are able to stay in control and not fall to civil war right after we leave
-They are able to defend themselves from thier neighbors

After that, we go.

Once again…what does victory look like?