Failure Is An Option

Andrew B. Gabel 9/28/09

Failure Is Not An Option Failure Is not an Option (no underline) In evaluating war, many make the mistake of focusing on the price of victory without taking into account the cost of defeat. There is no question the United States has invested heavily in Afghanistan both in blood and in treasure (odd word choice, distracting from point and incorrect connotation). After eight (consistency- you use numbers later, so use numbers now) years (including six (consistency) in Iraq), it is understandable that people have forgotten the importance of Afghanistan. To minimize and (OR- you can’t do both) neglect what President Obama’s said in his own words (redundant) was the “Central front in the fight against violent extremism”, (,”)is reckless and puts the U.S. in grave danger. One of the most ubiquitous arguments against an assertive coalition presence (take out presence- redundant, or add coalition’s presence) in Afghanistan is the assertion that our presence only creates more terrorists. This is utter nonsense. The Taliban, for all their propaganda videos, enjoys a paltry 4% approval rating. They rule through fear and intimidation, and are rightfully hated. Nothing would embolden terrorists across the globe more than for them (ambiguous, who’s them? Just say- “than to see”) to see a bunch of illiterate thugs with AK-47’s triumph over the greatest military power in the history of the mankind. An irresponsible American withdrawn would send a catastrophic message that would echo throughout the region. This disastrous outcome would tell the world that if one inflicts a certain amount of casualties on the forces of freedom, American resolve disappears. Is, “If you make us bleed, we will conform to your wishes.”(comma not period) really the message we want to be sending to those who mean this country harm? (very awkward sentence especially for a concluding statement of a paragraph). Some (ambiguous) point to high Afghan death tolls as proof that we are doing more harm than good. It is important, however, to look past the superficial (casualty rates are NOT superficial, whatever you believe) numbers. What needs to be accounted for is why the civilian casualties (are) so high. Collateral damage occurs because Taliban fighters intentionally use hospitals and schools as hideouts. This way, when the Air Force bombs what they it thinks is an enemy safe house, the Taliban get to(would be “gets to,” but this makes the sentence awkward anyway) accuses U.S. forces of baby-killing and war crimes. This is the equivalent to someone killing their own parents and then complaining about being an orphan.(My opinion- I believe you could make this metaphor more accurate and less misleading) It proves how little our enemies think of human life, and how far they are willing to go for their twisted ideology. What does not get coverage in our media is all the good our troops are doing for Afghanistan, in many cases doing (for clarity) jobs they were never trained to do. What

gets ignored is (are) the 1,800 schools that have been built, the 50,000 teachers that have been trained, and the fact that primary school enrollment has increased from 900,000 in 2001 to over 5 million today (Lists need to be consistent). Perhaps the most important statistic coming out of Afghanistan is the fact that (“rate of” for consistency with “statistic” mentioned earlier) girls, barred from school under the Taliban, now have a chance to become more than sex slaves to middle-aged tribe leaders. We often hear about Afghanistan being a “graveyard of Empires” as evidenced by the failures of the British and the Soviets. However, what separates the U.S. is its objective(period) They (ambiguous)sought to conquer, while our forces (“we,” -the comparison to “they” needs to be consistent) are genuinely trying to improves the lives of the Afghan people for the mutual security of both (redundant with “mutual”)our countries. The U.S. presence gives Afghanistan a future. Fighting Islamic extremism takes more than bombs. Victory takes books, education, and infrastructure. Beyond our national security interests (which are very real),(commas are unnecessary with parenthetical, and this comment is unnecessary) perhaps the strongest case for a strong (redundant) commitment to Afghanistan is its moral imperative. If our leaders declare defeat for the sake of political expediency the real losers are the Afghan people, particularly the children. Afghanistan is directly related to our nation’s security in a way Vietnam (you don’t introduce this comparison, and it’s very late to do so anyway) never was. For 1.4% of the casualties we took in Southeast Asia and less than 4% of our Gross Domestic Product, we can afford to do what is necessary, and above all, what is just.