9 American Soldiers Killed in Afghanistan

Posted By: Nick

 
On Sunday, Taliban militants in Afghanistan attacked a U.S./NATO military base.  Nine American soldiers were killed, 15 NATO soldiers (likely Americans) were wounded, and 4 Afghani soldiers were wounded.  That the Taliban has been able to regroup to the extent that it feels comfortable attacking a U.S. military base is extremely troublesome.  That they managed to inflict the damage they did is even more troublesome.  Things are not going well in Afghanistan.

I wrote about Afghanistan last week, and I’m sure I will continue to do so.  The fact of the matter is, we have a foolish, shortsighted strategy in Afghanistan that is doing nothing to increase our national security.  Iraq distracted us from what should have been our real focus: Al Qaeda and the Taliban.  Now they have regrouped and we are beginning to pay the price.

We need more troops in Afghanistan, we need a new, aggressive military strategy, we need to convince Pakistan to take a more proactive stance against the Taliban; and we need these things now.  If militants in Afghanistan (likely operating from inside Pakistan) are capable of launching such an attack on a U.S. military base, then what else can they do?

Six and a half years into the war in Afghanistan, this sort of thing is unacceptable.  The failure of the Bush Administration to properly execute this war has real consequences that we are now beginning to see.

NYTimes Article