Out of Afghanistan

Our occupation of Afghanistan is doing more harm than good and in fact inspires anti-American terrorism. For instance, recently convicted terrorist Abdulla Ahmed Ali explained in his martyrdom video that he aimed to blow up US-bound passenger jets in revenge for our troops in Muslim lands. He said, "Enough is enough." "We have warned you so many times to get out of our land and leave us alone. You have persisted in trying to humiliate, kill, and destroy us." "Yes, taste that which you have made us taste for a long time."

Afghan President Karzai has stated that he wants us to stop the air attacks which kill civilians, and he wants to make peace with the Taliban. In a March 2009 PBS interview, Karzai said that "the Taliban are not enemies of Afghanistan or of the Afghan people. They are just countryside folks...Afghans." One must remember that it was not the Taliban who hit us on 9/11. In fact the Taliban condemned the 9/11 attacks and, as reported on BBC and others (9/13/01), the Taliban offered to hand over Osama bin Laden if the US provided clear and substantial evidence of his involvement. It is noteworthy that the Taliban had been working successfully with the UN to ban opium poppy cultivation. In 1999, Afghanistan produced 4,000 tons of opium, 75% of the world's supply. Then Mulla Mohammed Omar, the Taliban supreme leader banned opium poppies, calling it un-Islamic, and jailing farmers until they agreed to destroy their crops. Farmers switched to other crops like wheat and onions, and in 2001 Afghanistan's opium crop was down to 185 tons.

Unfortunately, we ignored the Taliban offer to help us capture bin Laden, and we invaded instead. Now Afghanistan produces 90% of the world's opium, and bin Laden is still free. President Obama says our mission in Afghanistan is to go after Al Qaeda, but Al Qaeda is now in Pakistan where our troops are not allowed. Furthermore, Al Qaeda has spread around the globe to places like Yemen, Somalia, Sudan, Mali, Mauritania, etc. We can't occupy the whole world. Addressing legitimate grievances of the Muslim world by ending our occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan and ending Israel's occupations is a far better way to combat terrorism.