I was watching Morning Joe when they revealed the new cover of Time Magazine. I was shocked, not by the image of a woman whose face had been disfigured by her husband, but by the topic: What Happens When We Leave Afghanistan? It’s the question I’ve been asking everyone who complains about the time and money we’ve put into Afghanistan so far and I never get a good answer. The woman on the cover, Aisha, is 18 and was sentenced by a Taliban judge for running away from her abusive husband. Her punishment involved brother-in-law holding her down as her husband sliced off her ears and her nose. This was just last year. This puts a face on what will happen on an even more widespread scale if the U.S. just pulls our troops out. As of right now the Karzai government in Afghanistan is making more and more deals with the Taliban. And when we pull out the reality is there will be even more deals and incidents like this will become more of the norm.

Now I’m not advocating for more troops or to stay in Afghanistan indefinitely. No, what I’m saying is we Americans need to face the reality of a decision we made in 2001. The truth is a vast majority of this country supported going to war in Afghanistan in 2001 after 9/11. Even a good portion of the “anti-war Left” came on board, using cases such as Aisha’s as their justification. We not just had to go into Afghanistan for revenge but to liberate an oppressed people. I remember this. Sure there were some protests but nothing compared to what happened when we went into Iraq. And now here we are, almost 9 years later and the progress has been dismal. Part of that is because we got distracted in Iraq. Think about it, General Petreaus and others have said they need 10 years to get Afghanistan right and completely weed out the Taliban and terrorists. Well if George Bush had focused instead of getting sidetracked in Iraq, we’d be approaching the end of this war (if prediction were right, which isn’t a guarantee). But that’s not what happened. We lost focus, “forgot” about the Afghanistan War and now that we’ve refocused we see what mess we’ve created and now we want to just leave.

What we need to realize is that no matter what we do, we’re fucked. All options for leaving Afghanistan have low success rates and lead to big problems.

1. We could stay the 10 years the Generals say they need and try to help stabilize the country. The problem is, there is no guarantee this will work. The most stable Afghanistan has been was when the Taliban was running it. That of course came at the price of human rights and a breeding ground for terrorists. To “do it right” would require endless amounts of money and the sacrifice of U.S. soldiers and Americans just don’t have the stomach for that. This has already turned out to be one of our longest military engagements and with the way our economy is, we just can’t afford it.

2. Pull out all combat troops and just use small special forces teams and drones to attack terrorists. This seems to be what most people suggest but I think they forget that even that costs money. At least when we have 100,000 troops in Afghanistan, people pay attention. You drop that level down to just special forces, CIA and drones and you have the makings of a “Secret War” that could be waged for decades and be a constant drain on the economy with no real chance of success or end game in sight. Only striking at terrorists in this manner is about as productive of just cutting off the head of a Hydra and watching as 2 more grow in its place.

3. Pull out all troops and just walk away completely. A lot of Anti-War people say this but I don’t think they realize that all this does is delay the inevitable. We did this before in Afghanistan. We offered our support in the 70’s with the freedom fighters against the Soviets and when the Soviets left, we did too. The country fell into a Civil War and the Taliban and Al Qaeda emerged from that. Leaving now just guarantees that 20 years from now we’ll be right back over there fighting an enemy that hates us, not because of religion but because we came in, messed up their country and then turned our back on them. This option just starts the cycle all over again

As I said, we’re fucked. This morning after seeing the cover of the Time Magazine Mike Barnicle asked “At what point do we say we are no longer willing to risk the lives of 60 service men and women each month for this?” My answer to that is simple “When we start asking that question first, before we invade a country and overthrow its government.” It’s really that simple. We did the same thing in Iraq. We invaded, overthrew the government and then we get mad when we get stuck in a “nation building” situation.  You break it you buy it.  You make a mess, you clean it up.  At least that’s how I was taught.  We might not like it but this is what we did.  It’s our responsibility because we made it our responsibility.

I shouldn’t be surprised by the lack of owning up though. This is typical behavior for America. This country has a history of making huge messes and then complaining when it comes time to foot the bill. We steal the land of the Native Americans, shove them on reservations and then complain when the rest of the country has to help support them. Africans were brought over as slaves and helped build the country and were treated as second class citizens all the way up until the 1960’s. Over 400 years of discriminating against blacks and using them to build this nation but 30 years of “diversity programs” to help level the playing field people are already crying foul (Shout out to Senator Webb).  This is what this country does. It creates a mess and then wants to weasel out of “doing the right thing” or at the very least just acknowledging that we don’t want to clean up the mess created. We don’t take responsibility. In the case of Afghanistan, I don’t know which option is the best. They all seem pretty bad. But I do wish that the people that complain about the money being spent at least have the guts to acknowledge people like Aisha. Acknowledge and take responsibility that when we leave we will be opening the door to even more human rights violations like those Aisha suffered and retribution against those that used to help us. Don’t pretend they don’t exist or that they won’t be causalities of yet another example of this country failing to have the stomach and the commitment to clean up messes we created.  Own up to it and make the decision.  But don’t just close your eyes and pretend the consequences of this country’s actions don’t exist.