Lighthouse Strategy for Winning in Afghanistan

This is our 11th year in Afghanistan and we don't have much to show for it. We built schools and wells, and the Taliban destroyed many of them.

We gave Afghans money and equipment, and the Taliban took it from them. We have also mistakenly funded Taliban supporters, sometimes because we didn't know about their affiliation and sometimes because we foolishly thought it would somehow help us.

We tried to control the entire country but ended up controlling only major cities. The Taliban have freedom of movement in many areas.

Our initial goal of punishing the Taliban government for hosting Al-Qaida was accomplished very early. The rest input time in Afghanistan has been wasted.

The Afghan people are no closer to freedom from oppression now than they were in early 2002 after our successful attack on the Taliban government. If we were to leave tomorrow, the Taliban is capable of returning to power and controlling the entire country.

While we spend billions of dollars to maintain our presence in Afghanistan every year, the Taliban's costs are minimal. While we try to build support for freedom with our construction projects, the Taliban tear down the people with intimidation, murder, kidnappings, and robbery - much cheaper than construction and security. The Taliban have the home field advantage. But we can change that.

If we want to win freedom for the Afghan people, we need to do it with organized, a scalable method. We need to demonstrate to all Afghans what life can be like without the Taliban presence. We need to win complete freedom and security in one location and then expand it. Instead of trying to control the entire country, at once, we need to focus on just one area, what would be known as Land of the Free, and offer free relocation to any Afghan individual or family who wants to move there. Other Afghans would see a desirable and feasible alternative to Taliban oppression and they would travel to live in the Land of the Free.

We would help them form a government and fund construction projects. We would insist on a minimum set of secular laws designed to maintain the integrity of the effort and advise their government and provide experts and educators to bootstrap a new Afghan society. It would be much cheaper to defend a small area and as it matures the Afghans living there could take over the security role and we can expand its border. Eventually it would be big and stable enough to withstand any Taliban attack on its own. Then we and the Afghans will have the home field advantage against the Taliban, who will find themselves becoming irrelevant as fewer and fewer Afghans will be left to oppress.

The Taliban can then spend the rest of their days living their ideal hypocritical pseudo-Muslim lives, raping and pillaging each other to their hearts content, and we can live happily ever after knowing we avenged the attack on 11 Sep 2001 and truly liberated many Afghans from the reign of terror imposed on them by the Taliban.

Truth

Truth is only that which accurately describes existence in the past, present, or future.

We must never tire of pursuing the truth.