Time to Leave "Hopelessistan."

President Obama sounded like he was channeling George W. Bush last night in his announcement to escalate the war in "Hopelessistan" (better known as Afghanistan). The face was different and the voice not the same but the 9/11 references during his speech were recycled Bush material. I know Obama campaigned on Afghanistan being the worthwhile war and I felt the same up until this year. Things have changed since then. The most critical one being the "re-election" of the Karzai government there, which was marred with voter fraud but besides that it is more corrupt than the Soprano family. Do we really want to take sides in another civil war? A lot of insiders are saying now that the Taliban doesn't want much to do with al-Qaeda but mainly wants the corrupt Karzai government gone. So how do you say that you're defending the Afghanis when they hate and fight a government they see as not just inept but downright corrupt.

Beyond that we have been there for 8 years now with not much to show for it, which isn't shocking if you know the history of the region that not even Alexander the Great could fully conquer and occupy Afghanistan. The British and Soviets failed at it too. I realize that is where the 9/11 attacks were planned and where they initially trained for that attack. That said, since their "safe haven" of Afghanistan was discovered they have scattered to the four corners of the Earth so there is no longer any one "safe haven" for these fighters to gather in. Al-Qaeda has spread out and is training in Africa, Southeast Asia and even Europe. So if we are out there to eradicate every single al-Qaeda member then we need to invade Spain, England, Sudan, Somalia, Kenya, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, Yemen and many others. We never seem to learn not to fight the last war. We are treating the situation in Afghanistan as if al-Qaeda were still simply located in that region.

The other reason I am now against continuing this war is due to the rising price tag at a time when our country is domestically falling apart. We can't afford to keep fighting every little hot spot around the world. I'm tired of being the world's police officers. We especially can't afford it if we are going to go ahead with this health care reform. It's time to refocus back on rebuilding our OWN country because without a strong country we are in no shape to help anyone else. I think we'd be better served if we pulled our troops home from even places like Japan and use those resources to stop and prevent attacks on the homeland.

We have some of the best "first responders" in the world and our CIA, FBI, Homeland Security and local police forces have done a great job neutralizing nearly all terrorist plots. That includes posting National Guard along our borders. And we must be prepared for another attack getting through the net because in this modern age or even ages before this one we can't expect oceans to protect us anymore. We Americans are very use to dealing with the threat of a terrorist attack and we somehow think that we can stop terrorist attacks 100% of the time. That's like expecting doctors to be able to save our lives 100% of the time. It's just the time we live in; even Israel can't stop every attack and they are the best at it. To stretch our army thin around the world to chase down every terrorist is beyond stupid, it's how you destroy a country, (America) which is already teetering from two extended wars and the greatest economic disaster since the Great Depression in the 1930's. Let someone else take a turn policing the world but right now we need to focus on our own country or else we might not have much of a country left.

PHOTO CREDIT: Esquire.com

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