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Townhall Finance...
Are We Done in
Afghanistan?
By Larry Kudlow
In the aftermath of the killing of Osama bin Laden, I found myself
agreeing with Charles Krauthammer that this was a global game-changer
for American greatness.
It was a gutsy and courageous decision by President Obama, brilliantly
executed by the Navy SEALs and all the intelligence and support behind
them.As Krauthammer put it, after the tough slogs in Iraq and
Afghanistan, this amounts to the restoration of unquestioned U.S.
military dominance.
America has not slipped, nor has our military reach and power. But now
I want to ask a more difficult question.
With the killing of Osama, is the Afghan mission complete?
The original post-9/11 goal was to kill bin Laden and wipe out
al-Qaida. Now that we’ve killed bin Laden and dismantled so much of
al-Qaida, do we really need to trudge through an even longer war in
Afghanistan?
Ayman Al-Zawahiri is in Pakistan. Perhaps the SEALs can dismantle him.
Anwar Al-Awlaki is in Yemen, and perhaps al-Qaida can be dismantled
there.
But regarding the broader war in Afghanistan, I was taken by a quote
from Rep. Peter King on National Review Online. He said, “The enemy is
now more of a threat from within than it is from overseas.”
I am no military or foreign-policy expert. But I do know the cost of
supporting a corrupt regime like Hamid Karzai’s in terms of blood and
treasure.
The cost is steep.
I speak here as a hawk, not a dove.
Read it at Townhall Finance
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