Washington Debates While Americans Die
As the President considers how to proceed with the war in Afghanistan, the insurgents have turned up the heat on the allied mission. With America’s leaders and the public focused on the healthcare fiasco, Taliban-allied forces today killed 8 more American soldiers, bringing the total so far this month to 55 dead. Even with October not yet finished, today’s attack made this the costliest month in terms of American lives since the United States entered the war eight long years ago.
That almost half of these October fatalities have occurred over the past few days is unlikely to be a coincidence. The enemy that U.S. troops thought they had contained has come back with a vengeance, and at just the right time. Led by the illiterate, blind, though surprisingly competent Mullah Omar, the Taliban and company are showing their teeth at this most critical juncture in the American war effort. The message, if the leadership and the public can pause from their infatuation with the public option and listen is unmistakable: If America is going to win this war, it is going to cost an enormous amount of money, and, I fear, the lives of many more brave soldiers. The enormous death toll should make clear to the American leadership and to its citizens what the military has long known to be the case: the Taliban are far more than a group of roving lunatics with outdated weapons. They come to fight, and they are increasingly proving to be quite good at it.
After eight years, two wars, too many dollars, and far too many American lives, it is easy to understand why both America’s leaders and its public might be growing weary of the endless wars in which we have involved ourselves. But there is no wishing away the reality that America in a war against an increasingly sophisticated and extremely resilient opponent. Barack Obama is commander in chief of the armed forces, and its time he begins acting like it. Whether he decides to double down or decides to cut America’s losses, it is time for America’s young President to do what he was hired to do: make the tough decisions. It will be very revealing to see whether the President will choose one of the stark options, or whether he will timidly split the difference to try to alienate as few people as possible.