Why is the Afghan War Not Fun Any More? – A Test

With President Obama’s recent decision to deploy more troops to Afghanistan, surprise, surprise! There are lots of people who don’t agree with this decision. There are the folks who think that we have been fighting this war too long already, there are those who think it is too costly in both the lives of our military and in financial terms, some think that we should never have gotten into the war, and then there are surely various groups who have their own particular positions on why this was not the right decision.

Clearly this is another opportunity for an American Intelligence Test.

Let’s all remember the basic rules:

1. You have to score the answers yourself, so we all know who you are deceiving.
2. You have to depend on the honesty, integrity and honor of your answers which are your responsibility and thus are a vital part of the test. [How intelligent can you be if you lie to yourself?]
3. Passing the test is no indication of valid answers

Time to turn on those thinking caps on. Minds, front and center. Let’s do it to it.

Question 1: Did you support and approve of the United States undertaking the Afgan war and forming the coalition of nations engaged in it, when it began under President G.W. Bush?
Remember this was after the World Trade Center Towers, Pentagon, and Pennsylvania plane crash terrorist attacks, and the Taliban were hosting Al Qaida training camps and operations groups. And you should try your best to recall how you felt at that time and not now 8 years later.

Question 2: Did you believe that creating a free democratic Afghan government and society were an essential part of our commitment to the war?
On this item you should consider that in the world community and in accord with United Nations agreements an occupying force is responsible for the administration and proper running of the society during the period of occupation. So the United States/Coalition Alliance had to either continue to govern Afghanistan as the official civil authority, or we had to establish an Afghani civil government that would be vested with that responsibility and authority.

Question 3: Did you understand that the cost of the Afghan war (and then the Iraqi war) were treated as an ‘off the books’ budgeting item for the US’s budget, and did you think that was appropriate and sound fiscal responsibility? Choices: A – understood and yes, B – understood and no, C – not understood and yes, D – not understood and no.

This questions contains two facets of the war that need to be appreciated and tightly linked with one another. One: there was and still is an implicit cost for these wars. If you believe that America had to undertake either or both of these wars then you should have understood that you were accepting the responsibility and obligation to pay for them. There is nothing about a war that is any different than any other effort or task in our society or the real world. This fact is that ‘there is no such thing as a free lunch’.
Two: the cost of the war will come home to roost whether some governmental accounting slight-of-hand manages to make it appear to be invisible. Worse, by allowing the Government to temporarily obscure such financial liabilities, you empower decision makers to commit you to financial obligations that can have severe consequences to your economic security and to weaken the strength and stability of our society and therefore our nation.

Question 4: Given we have being prosecuting the Afghan war for over 8 years now, though we have to admit that we lost focus on the war, the objectives, and the responsibilities that were part of our mission; do you think that we have achieved any of our objectives?
These objectives included:

A. Improving our Civil Defense from the “clear and present danger” that the Taliban
Afghanistan represented.
B. Root out and capture or eliminate the al-Qaida leadership.
C. Establish a free democratic Government in Afghanistan, and help lead the way for democratic governments throughout the region.

Question 5: Which of the following is consistent with American values and is worth of the true American spirit with respect to America’s responsibility to the people of Afghanistan?

A. Pull out our troops as quickly as possible, such that we insure the safety of the troops during this pull-out.
B. Stay in Afghanistan and deploy sufficient troops so that we can establish an Afghanistan civil government that is sound, is an uncorrupt citizen-serving system, and that is able to provide adequate protection to its populace from terrorist and insurgent groups within their country.
Note: I make no assertion that the Afghan government need be a Democratic system styled after the American/Western form.

Extra Credit Question 6: You get a bonus on this one. If you get it right, then you can have messed up on a previous one and your score is restored to the higher level.
Ready?
If the cost of the war is too high, then do you abandon the Afghan people, or change your objectives?

A. Abandon
B. Change Objectives (this is not changing just the approach, it’s changing what you want to accomplish)

Test Over. You can put your minds back to where ever you usually keep them.

And how did you do on this one?

Should you have any interest in my answers, here’s how I did.

Question 1: Y Question 2: N Question 3: B Question 4: N Question 5: B
Bonus Question 6: B

Hope you did well on yours.