I noticed an AP report yesterday that, on its face, seemed like good news. The headline said, “U.S. Planning Afghan Spring Offensive.”
Here are the first three graphs:
A suicide car bomber blew himself up in a taxi next to British peacekeepers patrolling the Afghan capital Wednesday, killing one soldier and wounding four.
It was the second suicide assault on foreign troops in as many days, marking an escalation in the Taliban-led rebellion and increasing its parallels with the insurgency in Iraq.
In response, U.S. forces in Afghanistan are planning a spring offensive, Pentagon officials said Wednesday.
The story went on to explain that the Taliban (remember them?) claimed responsibility for both bombings and a spokesman for the group said these suicide attacks would mark the beginning of a new campaign of suicide bombings nationwide.
I don’t mean to sound picky, but the U.S. is just now planning to start an offensive in Afghanistan? Shouldn’t we have been doing this all along?
I’m no expert on the Middle East, but let’s see if I have this straight: The Taliban and al Queda plan, execute, and sponsor terrorist attacks that kill 3,000 Americans. We use military force to overthrow the Taliban, but many of its leaders, as well as Osama bin Laden, get away. Instead of following through on our commitment, we leave Afghanistan to invade Iraq because of its non-existent weapons of mass destruction. In the meantime, the Taliban regroups and starts murdering again.
Indeed, as the AP noted, more than 140 people have been killed and injured since the Jan. 4 ratification of a new constitution that took effect this week, including a U.S. Marine who is in intensive care at a military hospital in Germany after his vehicle was attacked in eastern Afghanistan.
And now we’ve decided that the Taliban has piqued our interest again? I’d love to hear the White House explain why we abandoned Afghanistan in the first place.