News Gets Worse From Afghanistan

Just when the American people might have thought that they already had experienced the limits of poor judgment and arrogance in our endless and expensive occupation of Afghanistan, the bar was raised, according to the New York Times article “Karzai says CIA will keep cash coming” in Sunday’s Dispatch.

The American and Afghan governments admit that the CIA has given Afghan president Hamid Karzai bags of cash every month for years amounting to tens of millions of taxpayer dollars. All the while, the U.S. government has criticized the Afghan government for corruption. This is the same U.S. government that is struggling with a huge budget deficit and cutting funds to Head Start and cancer research.

The Afghan war already has claimed the lives of 2,138 American service members and cost $1 trillion. Must what remains of American moral authority join lives and treasure lost in Afghanistan, the “Graveyard of Empires”? In my professional judgment, there is no vital national security interest nor the prospect for a win in Afghanistan for the United States.

We should exit Afghanistan as soon as possible, thus conserving blood, treasure and moral authority.