We will never really have a chance to stop terrorists as long as we are still killing their families!

Thousands of Afghans shouting "Death to America!" protested the killings of children Thursday, the latest in a string of controversial cases in which international forces have been blamed for civilian deaths.

U.S. Gen. Stanley McChrystal has ordered troops to use airstrikes judiciously and fire cautiously to reduce civilian casualties. Still, each new report of civilians killed unleashes raw emotions that highlight a growing impatience with coalition forces' inability to secure the nation.

There are fears the problem could get worse with 37,000 U.S. and NATO reinforcements already starting to stream into the country as part of a military buildup.

More civilians die at the hands of insurgents, yet any time innocent victims are killed, the Taliban wastes no time in blaming foreign troops.

"Every time the Taliban kills civilians, nothing happens. There is no protest. There is nothing," said Hroon Mir, an independent political analyst in Kabul. "But whenever there are civilian casualties from NATO or Afghan forces, then there is a reaction."

Yes I know it is complicated.

Yes I know America has made promises.

Yes I know that if we pull out the Republicans will blame the WHOLE THING on the Democrats.
And yes I know that Obama said that he is dedicated to "winning" the war in Afghanistan.

But NONE of that matters so long as innocent people are dying at American hands.

Every time an Al Jazeera news crew captures the image of a dead Afghan child being carried through the streets by his father, a new terrorist is created. Every time a drone fires a missile and human beings become "collateral damage", we create a terrorist.

In short, so long as we are killing these people, regardless of our reasoning for doing so, we are making more enemies. And if these enemies have no army to join to fight their invaders than what is left for them to do but to become a terrorist?

And don't buy into that whole "they attacked us first" bullshit. That was a small ragtag group of frustrated Middle Easterners (15 of which were Saudis) who, either got extraordinarily lucky, or had some help from people in high places. None of the 9-11 hijackers were from Afghanistan yet, because they supposedly had been trained there, that was reason enough to start killing the citizens of that country.

Fifteen of the hijackers came from Saudi Arabia, but THAT country was given a "get out of war with America" free card.

It will do me no good to go back and dredge up all of that "we never should have invaded Afghanistan OR Iraq" stuff, instead we need to access what the war is doing to our country NOW.

For one thing it is costing us around one million dollars per year to keep a soldier in Afghanistan. (Just imagine what ending that conflict would save the American economy.) For another thing fighting it is continuing to damage our reputation around the world. And last, but certainly not least ENDING THE WAR WOULD DRAMATICALLY HELP THE DEMOCRATS IN THE NEXT ELECTIONS.

What? Does that sound crazy to you? Well then you did not pay attention during the last election.

Obama was elected largely in the hope that he would end our two wars. If he does not do so he will have failed to keep a campaign promise that will have a deleterious effect on ALL of the Democrats running in 2010. But if he DOES end the conflict the heavens will open up and shine its glory on him again, as well as any Democrat who backs him up.

Let's face it the Republicans have put themselves into a corner. They CANNOT support a withdrawal at this point, but Americans want one, so it will benefit Democrats almost exclusively.

Oh sure the Republicans will spit and call names but in the long run it will do them no good.

Mr. President you mark my words. If you pass health care reform and end these wars THE WORLD WILL TRULY BE YOUR OYSTER. And you will have the eternal gratitude of the American people and the military families who will surely demonstrate that gratitude at the polling booths in 2010 and 2012.

But mostly Mr. President do it because we are killing innocent people, and we just can't do that because, God damn it, WE are the good guys!