Musings on Greenwood

As our soldiers leave Kandahar, I just wanted to pay one last tribute to their sacrifices over the last six years in that hell hole.

There will be much debate in the months and years to come about the achievements of the War on Terror in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Undeniably, there have been good things accomplished on both fronts by Western forces but the costs have been considerable for what are meagre returns at best.

I think Iraq and Afghanistan have demonstrated the limits of hard power in the realm of nation building. Military strength can knock out nasty dictatorships but it isn’t so great at filling the void afterwards.

This simple truth is seen in the corrupt, drug dealing tyrant who now runs Afghanistan and the gang of warlords in power in Iraq.

Are they improvements over the Taliban and Saddam Hussein? Yes.

Does it justify the trillions of dollars we’ve spent and the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people?

Only time will tell if the people of Afghanistan and Iraq can build a better future than their immediate past.

If they can, then the sacrifice mentioned above will have been worth it.

Whatever happens, our soldiers on the front line couldn’t have done more in their capacity to build a better world.

I salute them and thank them for their service. Welcome home.

Ethan Rabidoux