Afganistan, Small Business, Economy, Internet and Fcc

Obama on Osama-Afghanistan Strategy
  When the U.S. went into Afghanistan, the objective was to get Osama and Al Qaeda for their 9/11 terrorism. To do that we had to take down the Taliban which was supporting Al Qaeda.  So far, so good. Now, eight years later, Osama is still at large, the Taliban are resurgent, and it is not hard to see that if we leave, the Taliban will retake the country the same way they did the first time.  We’ve been holding back from doing the dirty work of rooting them out because we don’t want the casualties that such effort would entail. At the same time we’re stuck with a corrupt government (a la Pakistan, no matter what anyone says) that supports drugs, nods and winks at Tribal religious practices that have endured thousands of years, and isn’t doing much except lip service to change.  We are part of the problem in this regard.  Either we have the courage to do the job right, catch and punish Al Qaeda-and Taliban leadership- or we will die a “death of a thousand cuts” in half-heartedly pursuing our goals.  Afghanistan must evolve out of Tribally maintained traditions into a more secular society. That will take a generation. The U.S. must persist in it’s nation-building while remembering that loyalty purchased with a bribe- a la Iraq-  lasts only as long as the expectation of the next bribe.  To think otherwise is delusional and  not a good basis for Foreign Policy.