The forgotten war

Last week, a suicide bomber affiliated with the Taliban attacked the Bagram Air Base, a United States military installation in Afghanistan. According to a Taliban spokesman (evidently, the Taliban have spokesmen), the target of the attack was Dick Cheney, who happens to be the vice president of the United States and was visiting the base.\nThis past Sunday, another suicide bomber struck a Marine convoy, also in Afghanistan. According to witnesses, U.S. forces then fired on civilians on foot and in cars along a six-mile portion of highway. Afghan journalists who arrived at the scene after the bombing were allegedly made to delete photos and video that they took of the aftermath of the shootings.\nAt this point you might be slightly confused. “What is Afghanistan?” you might ask. As you may remember, after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the United States armed forces and other forces from NATO countries invaded the nation of Afghanistan with the aid of the Afghan Northern Alliance. The goal was to locate and capture Osama bin Laden, who was allegedly responsible for those terrorist attacks and was believed to be in hiding in the country’s mountains. The secondary goal was to depose the Taliban regime.\nTo make a long story short, Afghanistan was the country the United States actually had a legitimate reason to invade.\nAt first, the war in Afghanistan was actually pretty successful – a far cry from the royal mess that is the Iraq war. The Taliban defense lasted a relatively short time, and its remnants were forced into hiding to regroup. A democratic government was created to fill the void left by the Taliban. All seemed well.\nHowever, judging by the aforementioned incidents and others, it would seem the situation in Afghanistan is degrading. What might be the worst part of all from the standpoint of the United States (excluding, of course, the fact that our troops are dying there) is that, more than five years after 9/11, we still appear to be nowhere near apprehending bin Laden.\nIt almost seems as if after the invasion of Iraq and all of the events and general furor surrounding it, the American public has, for the most part, forgotten about the war still going on in Afghanistan. It seems many, while still name-dropping Sept. 11, have totally forgotten the true connection lay between al-Qaida and the Taliban, not between al-Qaida and Iraq. It seems we have forgotten the true reason for going to war – to track down and apprehend the people responsible for destroying the World Trade Center, attacking the Pentagon and killing the passengers of Flight 93 in Pennsylvania. \nI am no hawk, but I could at least see the reason for invading Afghanistan. It seems that while we duel over whether we should pull out of Iraq now or stay the course and finish the job, we should win the forgotten war – the one we should have been fighting in the first place.