Afghanistan War is Useless

So opines Ralph Peters. Peters' piece in the NY Post is written in a style that reminds one of a conversation with a friend - it feels informal, like it's from the heart.

I’ve selected three quotes from the article which are very astute and deviate from the typical war-mongering cries from the media to which we’ve come so accustomed.

Now we are warned that, unless we send another 40,000 US troops to convince Afghans we're their friends, unspecified woes will fall upon us like biblical plagues.

The generals refuse to recognize that, from the local viewpoint, the Taliban are the patriots. We're the Redcoats.

So our troops hold their fire and die to protect Afghan villagers who back the Taliban and to protect an Afghan government the people despise. How, exactly, does this advance our national security?

Peters was doing so well until the final four paragraphs where he apparently realized that he was, in fact, a member of the main stream media and the day ended in ‘Y’. A leopard never truly loses its spots, no? Peters feigns the idea of peace (but only against the Taliban) but continues the war cries against the American boogieman: al Qaeda.

Why, according to Peters, are the Taliban patriots but al Qaeda must be eradicated? Is al Qaeda’s skin browner than the Taliban’s?

Peters wrote:
Killing our nation's enemies always makes sense. [his emphasis]

There are so many things wrong with that simple, but powerful, sentence.
First, who gets to decide who “our nation’s” enemies are?
More to the point, who is this collective that Peters has failed to identify that obviously makes up the “our”?
By virtue of the fact that I was born on this land mass known as America, am I to be lumped in with “our”?
If I am part of “our”, am I to wait until I have been given direction by some person or some group of persons so that I can be enlightened as to who “our”/my enemy is?
What if I don’t agree with the fact that someone or group of persons has been labeled as “our” enemy?
Does killing them still “always make sense”?

Tell that to the Japanese Americans during WWII.