The Wars Since 911

We seemed to be fighting a ghost, until a few months ago when finally, after nine plus years the U.S. actually caught and killed Bin Laden. It was a quick strike procedure carefully carried out in the dark of night. Success was vital (we had not had many successes lately, especially in this type of a campaign.) It really was a feather in Obama’s cap. He did what no one felt he could. He made the decision to move forward. This was a great day for the world to rid this terrorist from the planet. But, what led up to this illustrious moment was quite taxing and I believe ill fated. The Iraq War and the Afghan Wars were handled poorly on all fronts by both Presidents and Congress. The U.S. needs to learn from this so as not to dive head long into this type of hornets nest again. (You would have thought Vietnam would have taught us something) First, we need to realize that a war is meant to be won or lost and fought against an enemy combatant. The overall expense, loss of life, length of time spawned a division of the nation and the politics made this affair difficult to swallow. If it is War… Declare It, legally and go to war to win. Unleash the hounds (so speak). This idea of surgically removing the enemy, in a nation that really did not seem to care, nor was very helpful in identifying the bad guys is way to hard and dangerous. Secondly, if these nations want us there; let them ask for help and be willing to foot the bill for us to send our troops, equipment and technology over to their shores. Also, they should be thankful we are there. We will leave it better than we found it. Probably, we will rebuild it, at our cost, before we leave. We have to look ahead to how to end these types of wars. The people are liberated but are not prepared to rule themselves and they are not about to let us rule. So, provisions should be made for our exit plan or else all hell will break loose. (Pretty much like Libya, Syria, Egypt and the rest of the Mid East boiling pot has exploded.)So much is now at stake that maybe could have been spared through negotiations, embargos and other diplomatic activities instead of the wars. (I firmly believe that was part of Bin Laden’s plan to bait us into a series of wars that we can not win but will continue to fight at an incredible expense of life and money.) He knew our ego and our compassion to rid the world of such terror would drive us to finish the job. Well we got him, but the job is still not done… Or is it? Where do we go from here?
I say enough is enough… Time to Look Inward and fix our problems! Use that money, effort and experienced personnel to rebuilt our core, protect our borders and to reshape the broken cities from the natural disasters of recent times. Our military has rebuilt many parts of Iraq, yet New Orleans is still in ruin. Our military chases militants through out the world yet gangs rule many of our cities. Our young people die defending people that don’t love nor respect them for what they do; bring them home , bring them to the many bases we have around the world to protect, defend and reinforce the America that we possess. Don’t get me wrong! I greatly admire and respect every military person that does go forward to do the duty for which they are charged. They deserve more, respect and thanks for what they do. They deserve to be treated better upon their arrival home. They deserve the top care available. (Say a medical life insurance plan for life similar to that of Congress, how about a suitable pension plan, how about job training to acclimate them to civilian life. They get very little pay for what they do… we need to do more for these individuals that put so much on the line for us.) For, if we are in a better place today than ten years ago, they are very much the reason that we are safe and secure.