Set aside the possible merits, you can’t spend nine years shooting at Muslims and getting shot at by Muslims without a significant portion of your society developing a dislike for Muslims. And, while that’s a disturbing trend, it’s also true in reverse. A significant number of Muslims are developing a generic dislike for Americans. In other words, making war on each other isn’t reducing the threat of violence between us. It’s increasing that threat both domestically and abroad. I know this should be obvious and predictable, but apparently it is something that no one in Washington DC can figure out.
I don’t mean to suggest that we don’t have an interest in a stable Afghanistan, but we also have an interest in spending that money in more productive ways. And we aren’t actually getting a stable Afghanistan, so there is all this downside without much upside. We don’t have to give up on protecting ourselves, but we have to be much smarter about it. What we’re doing now is eroding the character and tolerance of people on both sides of the conflict.
