Confusing The Wars

Confusing the wars.

Why Afghanistan and Iraq are very VERY different.

I consider myself a guy who likes to observe a subject and then, after some thought, make a decision on said subject.

Kneejerk reactions are very dangerous. It's great to feel passionate about something, but, for the love of God, think before reacting.

Case in point:

Anytime I bring up my support for the war in Afghanistan or my support for the troops in Afghanistan, I get the same reaction;

"They should just come home. Why are we there? It's such a useless war for oil and money."

You're such a kneejerk.

Yeah, I said it. It's a noun now...you kneejerk.

Why are people confusing these wars? I can't understand why anybody living in the West would want to abandon the effort in Afghanistan.

(Here in Canada, we might end up having another election mostly because of kneejerks)

If I've said it once, I've said it a dozen times;

The war in Afghanistan is NOT the war in Iraq.

Let's review the two:

(A) The war in Afghanistan:
Launched in 2001.
Its purpose:
To remove the Taliban regime which supported Al Quaeda and Osama Bin Laden. You know, those guys who killed over 3,000 innocent people on a September day in the US? You know, the ones that vow to destroy the West and our way of life? You remember those guys? Not the nicest folk.

(B) The war in Iraq:
Launched in 2003.
Its purpose:
To remove the dictatorship of Saddam Hussein. You know, the guy who didn't actually have any weapons of mass destruction? The guy who didn't have any ties to Bin Laden? The guy whose country didn't have any Al Quaeda in it until the US invaded?

(C)
Gi Joe:
Its purpose:
To defend human freedom against Cobra; a ruthless terrorist organization determined to rule the world.

(A) is important. If we don't win the war we're calling (A), the Taliban gain more control. The Taliban march their radical way right into Pakistan. Pakistan has nuclear weapons. People die. The very same Al Qaeda terrorists who attacked on 9-11 are still lurking on the Afghan-Pakistan border. The resurgent Taliban pose a threat not only to Pakistan and Afghanistan, but to Europe and North America. It is the real "War on Terror"

(B) was a war completely lied into. Pick whatever conspiracy you want.

"It's just for oil!"

Sure, I wouldn't put it past them

"It's because Bush hated Saddam for ordering his Dad's death"

Yep, I'd buy that too.

"It's because Cheney and Haliburton want a monopoly of piping"

Uh huh. Cheney's just psychotic enough.


(C) was a joke


but, let's not forget here

(B) is NOT (A).

Iraq is not Afghanistan.

There is one key difference. One HUGE difference.

Afghanistan wasn't invaded. The Afghanis don't believe it was invaded. They look at NATO as foreign aid ridding them of the Taliban.

Iraq was invaded, and the population knows it.

The whole world (pretty much) was behind the war in Afghanistan. Even Iran.
Truly, for the sake of the world, Afghanistan has to be a stable democracy.

We can't underestimate Afghanistan's serious problems, including a resurgent Taliban, a shattered infrastructure and ridiculously rampant drug trafficking. We have to get this under control. We were kicking some serious ass around 2004 / 2005, but the Americans kept taking troops to Iraq. So it's an uphill battle again.

Iraq is now a civil war. Don't let the right in America fool you; Al Queada in Iraq is about 2% of the fighting.

I don't really know what to do in Iraq. It's a messed up place. It's messed up worse than Afghanistan. I don't have any answers, I'm just a Canadian actor.

But I know this. Kneejerks like to say that both wars are being fought for the same reasons.

They are not.

To paraphrase Barack Obama's speech in 2003 on the Iraq war;

"I don't oppose all wars. I oppose dumb wars"

(A) is important
(B) was dumb.