GOP platform committee forgets the ‘forgotten war’ in Afghanistan

The Korea Times

The Korea Times

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Mon, December 4, 2023 | 01:58

Today`s Column

GOP platform committee forgets the ‘forgotten war’ in Afghanistan

Posted : 2012-08-24 17:06

Updated : 2012-08-24 17:06

By Dale McFeatters

While the Republican Party platform committee was endorsing sexual abstinence education, the Pentagon was announcing that the 1,972nd U.S. soldier had died in Afghanistan.

The party has been curiously reticent, even silent, on a war that will enter its 12th year on Oct. 7. There are still 80,000 American troops fighting there alongside our uncertain Afghan allies. One by one the other nations in the NATO coalition are beginning to drift away.

Polls show 60 to 66 percent of voters are opposed to the war and in favor of getting out. The one Republican who is unequivocal on the issue is Ron Paul, who says the war is illegal because Congress never declared it and we should get out now. He was met with silence.

The extent of the platform committee's musings on Afghanistan, at least so far, is to denounce President Barack Obama for allegedly leaking classified information about the death of Osama bin Laden to enhance his image.

Earlier this year, Obama, in consultation with our allies, set a timetable for departing Afghanistan ― combat operations winding down next year and complete withdrawal by 2014. Whoever wins in November will have to decide on the military's recommendation that we leave behind a residual force of 20,000 to hunt terrorists and continue training the Afghan military.

Romney, who is conspicuously lacking in military and foreign policy experience, as was Obama when he took office, has not said what he would do, only that Obama was dead wrong.

In a campaign speech earlier this year, Romney said: "You just scratch your head and say, 'How can you be so misguided? And so naive?' His secretary of defense said that on a date certain ... we're going to pull out our combat troops from Afghanistan ... Why in the world do you go to the people that you're fighting with and tell them the day you're pulling out your troops?"

If Romney has a better plan, he should tell us, preferably now, well before the election. The betting here is that he doesn't have a plan. If the Republican platform committee can tear itself away from the female reproductive system long enough, maybe it can draft one for him.

At the convention there will be the usual stirringly glib references "to our fighting men and women," but as far as this convention goes the war they are fighting is largely a forgotten one.

Dale McFeatters is an editorial writer for Scripps Howard News Service (www.scrippsnews.com).

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