Reporting from the "Forgotten War" in Afghanistan...

Michael Yon continues to do amazing work covering our efforts in the war on terror .

His's latest dispatch called "Why We Write" contains some strong warnings about our diminishing presence in Afghanistan. (Corporations aren't helping either.)

While Iraq is become more stable, Afghanistan seems to be heading in the other direction:

I’ve written pointedly about Afghanistan recently, and will post a couple more dispatches about the place before getting settled. My remarks about Afghanistan have angered many readers and I understand that. I appreciate that many folks have strong political aspects; certainly, they have been blunt sharing their viewpoints, so I knew many would be angry before posting those words, but I was speaking important truths. I care about our soldiers and our people and will not go silent when a man should speak.

Whether or not the danger signs were as proliferate or as prominent as they are now in southern Afghanistan, there were indications in the weeks and months after the initial invasion of Iraq that an insurgency was active and taking hold. Whatever the rationale at the time, hindsight gives clarity that we might have been able to quash the violence and contain the risk. Here we are years later, paying for the same ground three and four times.

Despite the urge to reach back for the Vietnam banner and start flapping it around to illustrate the consequences of fighting wars without plans to win and have the victory stick, for Afghanistan, we don’t have to go back thirty years. We can look over to Iraq and realize that a threat ignored today is an enemy on our doorstep tomorrow. With the signs pointing clearly to danger on a massive scale in Afghanistan, particularly in the southern regions, our civilian leaders are holding to the pre-existing plan to drawn down our combat forces and turn over responsibility for security to NATO. No disrespect to our allies, especially not so to the Brits, Aussies and Canadians, but I’m not sure the rest are up to that challenge.

I asked Joe Galloway his opinion and he replied [Having requested his permission to reprint]:

“…we are sailing ever deeper into the swamp in Afghanistan. Gonna turn that badlands territory in the south over to NATO? What will they do when they start taking casualties out the yazoo? Cut and run? You bet. Or hunker down in their bases and pray the bad guys don’t come get ‘em. Which they will.”

I know Joe is right. I also believe that in 2007 and 2008, at this rate, we will face an extremely fierce enemy in Afghanistan, one that we already know is courageous and tough, an enemy left mostly unmolested while they brazenly guard the poppy fields that will make them rich with money to buy weapons. Explosives. Rockets.

As much as I am a fan of Don Rumsfeld, this post from Michael makes me think that it's time for him to step down...not in disgrace or because of political pressure from the "censure/impeach Bush" crowd, but because new leadership is sometimes needed to reinvigorate.

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