Let’s review the things that we know are true. For example, we know that we had an opportunity to capture Osama bin Laden in Kabul before the fall of Afghanistan. We did not capture him. We know, that we had an opportunity to kill or capture Osama bin Laden in the Tora Bora mountains. We did not. We had thousands of troops looking for the remnants of the Taliban and Al Qaeda but for reasons that are unclear, we packed up everything and decided to invade Iraq.
In my opinion, Donald Rumsfeld should have been fired over the conduct of the Afghanistan war. The purpose of the war was to kill or capture those who are responsible for September 11. Anything less, has to be looked at as a failure.
Without destroying the Taliban and without destroying Al Qaeda, we picked up and moved on. If we know just a little bit of history, we would’ve remembered that the Soviet Union had invaded and controlled Afghanistan and subsequently lost control. One of the reasons they lost control was they did nothing to win the hearts and minds of the Afghanis. now, look at what we’ve done since we have had “control” of Afghanistan. We’ve allowed the poppy crop to flourish. We have absolutely no control over southern Afghanistan. We’ve not built the roads that we promised. Warlords continue to dominate the countryside. Yet, we declared victory.
I said once, and I’ll say it again, just for the conduct of the Afghanistan war Donald Rumsfeld should have been fired. Especially, when you remember that Les Aspin was fired over not giving the troops the proper equipment in Somalia.
