THE ISSUE: Whether President Obama should send more troops to fight in Afghanistan.
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This is the first time that I’ve hoped that Ralph Peters is wrong (“Afghan Agony: More Troops Won’t Help,” PostOpinion, Sept. 22).
If it is true that our soldiers caught in a firefight are actually denied support because of fear of civilian casualties, all is lost.
This is simply disgraceful. We should pack up, go home and prepare our homeland for the eventual assault.
Political correctness has morphed into cowardice, and no soldier should die for that.
God help America.
Kenneth P. Lebeck
Plainview
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Once again, Ralph Peters makes the right call.
Sending more troops to Afghanistan is playing into the hands of the Taliban and its cohorts.
We have the best Air Force in the world, yet we don’t use it. Bomb the Taliban into submission, and maybe the corrupt governments will fall into place.
Joe DePascale
Brooklyn
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Much of what Peters writes about Afghanistan is true, but his prescription is shortsighted.
His analysis is focused only on al Qaeda and the Taliban.
If we were to defeat both enemies tomorrow and then leave, it would be only a matter of weeks before tribal chiefs made alliances with resurgent Talibans to control the world’s supply of heroin and only a matter of months before neighboring and nuclear-armed Iran forced a “zone of cooperation.”
Afghanistan is a problem for reasons beyond the fact that the 9/11 attacks were hatched there.
A nuclear, emboldened Iran partnering with narco tribal chiefs can brew far more mischief than Peters is anticipating.
Paul Bloustein
Cincinnati
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Afghanistan is becoming exactly what we all wanted to avoid in the first place — a politically correct, feel-good, nation-building effort modeled more on Vietnam than the lessons learned on how not to fight a war.
Instead of attacking the enemy with a laser-sharp focus, we have become, as Peters rightfully alludes, little more than armed social workers.
Hopefully, President Obama will resist his naive tendencies and lead his clueless party in a manner that is pragmatic and reasonable by providing adequate support to the people who are being asked to fight this war.
Now is not the time to allow illogical liberal ideologies to rule the debate. Obama must let the generals decide the best course of action. If he is not willing to do that, he must pull out and do the right thing for our troops.
One must be up to the challenge in this conflict. Anything else would be a travesty and a disservice to all of the men and women who are willing to lay it on the line for our country.
Obama must decide what is truly important in Afghanistan, even if it means bucking his own constituency.
Obama should, as Peters points out, go after the Taliban and its al Qaeda cronies with a singular focus, to win once and for all. The nation-building can come later.
Joseph Foster
Oceanport, NJ
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Peters is dead on with his analysis of the politically correct, uneven playing field crippling our troops in the ongoing war.
It is, in effect, like sending them into a street fight wearing boxing gloves.
Brad Morris
Astoria