Rep. Neugebauer's Newsletter on Afghanistan

I sent the following comments to Rep. Neugebauer concerning his visit to Afghanistan:

I have read your December 7 newsletter concerning your visit to Afghanistan.

My first reaction is to congratulate you for visiting this hot spot of contention. Later reflection, based on the details of your report, leads me to wonder a bit. When a high profile person representing money such as yourself, visits the recipients, it is almost guaranteed that they will lay out the red carpet, put their best foot forward and sell you on a program which is in their interest rather than yours.

I agree you hit Pres. Karzai hard, but as you point out, he is still the President. You can be sure that he will merely mouth you and any other Congressional visitors to extract from the American public every last dollar that he can.

The US military in Afghanistan is composed of people with a combination of motives. Some are in the military primarily to have someone take care of them. Some are there because they want to fight. Others seek power. However, the whole combination should have known full well when they enlisted that there are various jobs to be done. In many cases, these require multiple assignments to fighting zones and most involve separation from their families, when they have families. What I'm saying is, my heartstrings should not be pulled because of these family separations and possibility of death from enemy action through multiple tours of duty. I also love and pray for them, but these responsibilities, duties, and risks go with the job.

However, I am more concerned with why we are there. You have not addressed that point specifically and perhaps you should not have, based upon the fact that your visit involved on-the-ground viewing, rather than strategy. You did touch on it a bit by saying the Afghans must take ownership of their country and make the decisions and sacrifices that are necessary to be a free people. You also said Pres. Karzai must establish a responsible government, which would include eliminating corruption, in response to US support. Randy, this is nation-building, and we should have no part of it. Liberal Democrats have been trying to do this for a great number of years, and it has failed every time.

Our only interest in Afghanistan should be a matter of American security. Our interest is that Al Qaeda and the Taliban should not be using Afghanistan as a base of operations from which to obtain Pakistani nuclear weapons, with the possibility that those weapons might be used against us. However I have treated that subject separately, including interest and responsibilities of Russia and the NATO countries of Western Europe. I've also said ground forces in Afghanistan are not necessary to maintain this American security. It can be done by superior technological capabilities from a distance.

The bottom line of now having our military in Afghanistan is nation-building, and we should get out. I quote you again, "The Afghans must take ownership of their country and make the decisions and sacrifices that are necessary to be a free people".