I think the western world has a skewed outlook when it comes to war and protecting our people and way of life. I’m aware that war is sometimes necessary and even sometimes unavoidable (ie WW2 & Nazi Germany), but we have to start being honest when it comes to voicing our intent and reasoning. Those that support sending more troops to Afghanistan  are arguing that it’s “the right thing to do”, or saying that we’re going over there to make our country safer and to help the Afghan people. Now, I don’t like resorting to name calling, but anyone that actually believes either of those statements to be true are just outright naive. First of all, the Taliban has been weakened so much that they aren’t that big of a threat to us anymore (compared to other more dangerous countries that pose an imminent threat). And most of the Taliban aren’t even in Afghanistan anymore. They are scattered in low numbers throughout the Middle East. And that’s an absolute fact that even General Petraeus admitted. So in my mind, that kills the whole “keeping America safe” argument. So who are we really fighting over there? We’ve bombed these people so much that there’s really not much left to bomb. How many times can you blow up the same building? All the legitimate targets are now rubble. I don’t see the point of spending our tax dollars on expensive missiles that are targeted to hit rubble and ruins. How does that make our country safer? How does that “help” the Afghanis? We need to understand that the old ways of war don’t apply anymore. We can’t effectively fight terrorism by going after one or two specific countries. Terrorist aren’t all huddled up together in one place. They are smart enough to know that they can not win that way. But I guess our government hasn’t figured that out yet. It’s like we’re trying to put a cassette tape in a cd player, and then wondering why it isn’t playing. But instead of learning a new way, we keep doing the same thing, hoping for a different result. What kind of sense does that make? If we don’t soon adapt, and start being smarter, then I fear 9 11 will happen all over again. And that’s something none of us want.