The War on Afghanistan - Play to Win

I began this blog last night as I was listening to the news at 11:00. As I listened to all of the pundits give their two cents on the President's speech, I wanted to give my two cents. Here is a quote from the first part of the speech:

"To address these issues," Obama said, "it is important to recall why America and our allies were compelled to fight a war in Afghanistan in the first place. We did not ask for this fight. On September 11, 2001, 19 men hijacked four airplanes and used them to murder nearly 3,000 people.

They struck at our military and economic nerve centers. They took the lives of innocent men, women and children without regard to their faith or race or station. Were it not for the heroic actions of the passengers on board one of those flights, they could have also struck at one of the great symbols of our democracy in Washington and killed many more."

I was glad that President Obama took us back to the reason for the war in Afghanistan. I believe that was an important opening to the speech. I remember where I was when the planes attacked the World Trade Center. I remember how I felt - I knew it was an attack on this country. For that reason, I believe we have to win the war in Afghanistan. Can we win? I'm not sure. But I would rather die trying than to pull out and find out later that we left enemies there that are willing to do anything on our soil here in this country and attack more people. We have a responsibility to go for the win.

This country is still a powerful nation and we have everything we need to win this war. What happened to the days when we as a country, believed we would win any battle we engaged in? I grew up with the mentality of winning - Not quitting.

What happened to that in this country? I don't want us to cower from our enemies - I want us to stand up to them and defend this country. "I want us to play to win." Playing to win means, we develop a strategy and play our hand. The objective - to win! When I was learning about military strategy, we didn't show our hand to the enemy. We didn't tell them our exit strategy. Why in the world is that even an argument? We have a responsibility to win this war in my humble opinion, and we should exit the country when it is clear that we have attained victory, not one day sooner.