On September 11th, 2001, at 8:46 a.m., the hijacked American Airlines Flight 11 crashed into the World Trade Center’s North Tower in New York City. Soon thereafter, three other planes hit both the World Trade Center’s South Tower, also in New York City, the Pentagon, in the District of Columbia, and a field in rural Pennsylvania, murdering many civilians, high-ranking government officials, and powerful business leaders. As many Americans looked on, heart stricken, as the majestic World Trade Centers collapsed upon themselves, killing 2,973 Americans, they became scared for their lives, those of their family, and those of their fellow countrymen. As the American media portrayed images of massive annihilation of life and property constantly on television, in newspapers, and at schools, this fear turned into a general feeling of anger, directed at an unknown enemy. To quell this rage, the American public needed someone to blame. Al-Qa’idah, a worldwide terrorist group soon claimed responsibility for this act, and, consequently, Americans demanded militaristic action against them. In response to growing public demand, President George W. Bush commenced Operation Enduring Freedom invading Afghanistan on October 7th, 2001. However, nine years later, 100,000 American troops are still in the unnecessary, never-ending Operation Enduring Freedom-Afghanistan, and they need to be withdrawn, because the war is inefficient, costly, and dangerous.
First and foremost, OEF-A is unnecessary. However, many proponents of the war in Afghanistan believe that the American troops are keeping Al-Qa’idah militaristically occupied in their homeland, and, consequently preventing an attack on American soil by Al-Qa’idah. As Al-Qa’idah only have presumably 10,000 insurgents in Afghanistan, the proponents of OEF-A believe Al-Qa’idah cannot both fight American troops in Afghanistan and attack American soil at the same time due to the lack of manpower. However, this logic is preposterous, as it is quite clear that, even without the American troops in Afghanistan, the United States of America is safe from an Al-Qa’idah attack, as Al-Qa’idah has no means of terrorizing America, because it is an under-funded organization, and consequently cannot purchase any truly dangerous weaponry, such as tanks, helicopters, planes, or advanced guns. As a result, members of Al-Qa’idah are forced to hijack planes, as they did on September 11th, as their only means of attack against America. However, now this option has been taken away from them, as airport security worldwide has been improved, predominantly in North American and European nations. However, other nations, such as the United Arab Emirates and Iraq are also trying to improve their airport security to, by preventing the entrance of dangerous peoples onto airplanes, secure the safety of citizens presiding in their country, along with those of other nations. With machinery like radiography machines, puffer machines, and detection dogs, there is virtually no way that anyone wishing to cause harm on an airplane can do so. In fact, according to the Transport Security Administration of the United States, there is “no [current] threat to flying in the U.S.” In addition, according to Frances Fragos Townsend, the once-President Bush’s homeland security adviser, “People ought to feel safe about flying because of all of the precautions that [the Transportation Security Administration] is taking.” If members of Al-Qa’idah do not have access to planes while carrying dangerous explosives, they have virtually no way to attack the American people. Consequently, zero Americans have been killed by Al-Qa’idah since September 11th, 2001, in America. Except for the immature thirst for revenge and Al-Qa’idah blood, there is virtually no reason for OEF-A, and, therefore, the death of over nine hundred American soldiers in Afghanistan has been pointless, as there is no valuable resource, such as oil, coal, or food, to be won by a victory in Afghanistan. Case in point, the 100,000 American troops in Afghanistan are fighting for no reason whatsoever.
In addition, the gargantuan cost of OEF-A is unaffordable by the government of the United States of America, and henceforth detrimental to the public institutions that serve her citizens. As it is commonly known, the worldwide economy is in the middle of a massive economic recession. In fact, the federal government of the United States of America is twelve trillion dollars in debt to both foreign nations and private citizens, and there is little chance that the government can pay it off, as ten percent of America’s inhabitants are unemployed, and therefore cannot pay taxes and launch the government out of its arrears. Because of the economic recession alone, institutions like public education have started to lack sufficient funding, as it did at Campolindo High School in Moraga, California. Said one student of Campolindo, “There is simply not enough money for my school right now because of the economy. My school is in terrible shape, and, next year, I will be forced to drop many of the classes that I wish to enroll in.” To make matters worse, on December 1st, 2009, President Obama decided to export in excess of 30,000 American troops to Afghanistan, bringing the total number of American troops there to 98,000. As it costs over one million dollars a year to keep one soldier in Afghanistan, and American President Barack Obama recent bought several new high tech instruments of war, such as Merkava tanks, High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicles, and Predator SRAW missiles, it is projected that twenty to thirty billion dollars will be spent by the government of the United States of America on OEF-A in 2010. It is quite obvious that a nation in an economic state as poor as that of the United States of America simply cannot afford Operation Enduring Freedom, and consequently should not attempt to complete it and withdraw the majority of its troops, because if it does not, valuable public American institutions will further suffer due to lack of funding, and this great nation will sink further into debt.
Most importantly, however, the war in Afghanistan is dangerous, and there will be an immense loss of life, both American and Afghan, if the military of the United States does not stop OEF-A. As of February 2010, there have been nine thousand Afghan troops killed, nine thousand Afghan civilians killed, and nine hundred American troops killed. There have also been almost fifty thousand Americans and Afghans injured during OEF-A. Sadly, there is no near end to this madness, as there has been a massive increase in the amount of Afghan guerilla fighters determined to kill American troops. In fact, there were suspected to be 25,000 Taliban in Afghanistan in 2009, compared to the 11,000 suspected to be in Afghanistan in 2008. And, sadly, there is no end in sight to this extreme violence, because of advanced Taliban weaponry and increased Taliban motives. At the start of the war in Afghanistan, the Taliban had mere out of date Kalashnikovs produced in the 1960s. However, as the war progressed, the Taliban began to both buy and steal American weapons in large quantities. Currently, many soldiers, such as Private First Class Edwards have noticed that “the Taliban that have been firing upon my unit have … advanced guns, sometimes … even more advanced than my own.” For religious reasons, the Taliban will continue to be persistent in their effort to defeat the American military. The Taliban, by nature, are extremist Muslims, and, the holy book of that religion, the Quran, blatantly urges Muslims to kill nonbelievers: “Slay them. Such is the reward of disbelievers.” The Taliban will continuously fight American soldiers, so, to stop the presently existing excessive death, the American government must withdraw her troops.