Apparently this weekend, it was leaked out by sources that we might be in negotiations with the Taliban. The Taliban!?!?! I was in utter shock. Ok, Obummer (yes, I'm assuming it's his idiotic idea), have you any recollection of history? Obummer has made it his end goal to keep his political promises--those promises made on the campaign trail are often so broken within months so I can honestly respect his end goal. But, the truth is that when dealing with terrorists, whether homegrown or Middle Eastern, we've had no success with negotiations--EVER. So I'm a tad nauseated that he, and his staff, would even consider it!!
Now all that aside, President Jimmy Carter (who I've compared President Obama to before) had a lot of luck negotiating the release of the hostages in Iran (feel the sarcasm). For those of you that need a refresher, Iran took Americans hostage as part of the Islamic Revolution. How dare Americans and Europeans bring our "live and let live" concepts to their hostile terrain? President Carter and all the rest of the "king's men" tried desperately for over a year (over a f*n year) to get Iran to release our hostages. President Reagan (pre-presidential year) basically promised to go in there and kick some Iranian *ss if we didn't get our hostages back. In the backroom negotiations once he was elected, he made it clear that was still his stance. He'd go to war over 50+ Americans. The stand-off ended for one simple reason--President Reagan was not taking it. America had been brow beaten for years due to greed (LBJ), corruption (Nixon), and wimpiness (Ford and Carter). From the Great Communicator came one message, no more crap. President Carter was not decisive and he was no military leader. He wimped out, and the result was 444 days for 50+ Americans kept in captivity as our nation held its collective breath. President Obama isn't really a wimp in the same sense, but unfortunately, he seems to be already focusing on re-election--keeping the promise to pull out troops. I'm not disagreeing with the concept...just the timing and moreover, the negotiations. The Taliban is a terrorist organization, not the Iranian government. Not a legitimate government of any sort--so frankly, I don't give a rats' buttocks what they want. There is no peace with terrorists. Period.
Heck, let me use our own idiotic homegrown terrorists as examples: Ruby Ridge. Waco. The Olympics Bombing. The Oklahoma City Federal Building. Homegrown morons with their own agenda. Ruby Ridge--no more taxes and stock pile weapons. Threaten government officials. Waco--same and more. Child abuse (marrying off multiple 12 year olds to your leader is at bare minimum child abuse). Anti-choice idiots--still completely perplexed how bombing the Olympics has anything to do with abortion. The Michigan Militia--how does bombing the Oklahoma City Federal Building have anything to do with taxes, not paying taxes, neo-nazism, et cetera? Not that the Michigan Militia has ever made much sense to me, but the point is that all of these groups have one thing in common. They don't stop until public opinion is too harsh for them to be as successful in recruitment. Period. They will always have some amount of people willing to follow like sheep, but their numbers dwindle when people, en masse, realize how ridiculous they are.
The Taliban has every reason to "negotiate". Egyptians successfully called for a re-vamp of their political system and the "dictator" who had run their government since the 70s to step down. Libya's political unrest has our attention and support. Saudi women are driving in protest of not being allowed (yes people, it is illegal according to religious law for women to drive in Saudi Arabia). Countries like Qatar and Kuwait who have not continued the ridiculous power of extreme religion over all people (since after all, even Islam has different sects like Christianity, Judism, etc.) have flourished. Why would people of other Islamic countries want the same freedoms? The Taliban preaches an extreme interpretation of Islam--one where women and children are little more than cattle. One where death to all that stand (or even just talk) in opposition of their extremist view and implementation of their religion. Of course, they want to negotiate. They want us, the European and American influences, gone. It's hard to terrorize the people in those countries when they see Americans, Brits, Canadians, Aussies, Germans, Italians,..all these young men and women willing to risk their lives for the basic freedoms that we all believe natural human rights. Imagine the empowerment that must give people that the Taliban have terrorized in the past. It's not surprising at all that the Saudi women, the Libyians, the Egyptians are all standing up for themselves. The Taliban, like all of the extremists whether in the Middle East or here in the United States, are only as powerful as the people they are trying to intimidate and control are willing to let them be. The Taliban is losing control and the only way to regain it is to get us to leave. Yes, Obummer, they want to "negotiate".
If we leave now, we will be destined to repeat the mistake. Ten years will pass and we will be at the same impasse. Every time we have neglected this region the extremists have taken over. We always leave them splintered and do not stay long enough to ensure the extremists will not re-gain a foothold. Then we spend years trying to rectify our mistake, only to pull back out after only finishing half the game. That is a loss not just for us, because the biggest losers are the everyday average Arabs as the extremists take back over.
Let's take a lesson from one of our most successful wins--WW2. Japan and Germany were "occupied" for decades. Japan was by treaty to be occupied for 50 years. Japan is one of the most flourishing societies on the planet. Their country didn't have near the fanaticism that Germany had. The Germans have also rebuilt one of the best societies in spite of being split for the majority of the last century. Their economy has survived the economic downturn better than many of the other EU countries. These two examples should be our focus as we move forward.
Don't get me wrong; I'm not advocating NATO military presence for the next 50 years in the Middle East. All I'm stating is the obvious conclusions we can make based on history. We've got the Taliban on the run--to the point they'd like to trick us out of the region. The extremists are on the run, not just from our coalition, but from their own, everyday, ordinary people that wish to live in their homelands with the freedom to have opinions of their own, the freedom to choose how to live their lives without fear of reprisal from religious extremists, the freedom to live as human beings. But should we to turn tail and run to keep a political promise made before President Obama even had access to what only the President and his top aides have access to? He kept us there through most of this tenure for a reason; he found out why GW kept us there. Now is not the time to suffer tunnel vision and leave those people counting on us, rising up because of us, to the wolves that have made them suffer for so many decades. Lest we forget, the same wolves brought down our World Trade Centers. If we do, shame on us for leaving this for the next generation to have to re-fight and shame on us for deserting those who only want what any human being should always be afforded.
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