The Good War

The local paper's editorial for December 18 2007 is entitled "Is Americalosing 'the good war"? How is the war in Afghanistan "good"? The justification for attacking Afghanistan was, initially, that Osama bin Ladin lived there--an element which the paper now characterizes as "a sidelight". We attacked an entire nation because one man lived there--a man we worked with and empowered. There was also the Taliban. It's hard to like the Taliban with their intolerance and repression, but it appears plenty of Afghans agreed with them. The people of Afghanistan did not fly planes on 9/11. There is nothing "good" about attacking a nation and butchering its citizens when that nation and people have done virtually nothing against us. One important lesson in all this (and in the Iraq fiasco as well) is that it you are opposed by terrorists, a massive military engagement is not a useful or appropriate response.