Freedom

It's what we stand for.

It's what we live for.

It's what we watch others die for.

With the recent release of the "Afghan Papers" on WikiLeaks, the worldwide web's wonderful source for insider whistle-blower information, we get a glimpse at how badly the war in Afghanistan is going.

For us and for them.

No wonder there, really. When our military leader and his staff spill their guts to Rolling Stone, you know that the war is a lost cause.

And, this is unfortunate because the Taliban and Al Qaeda are as evil as any entity known to man. The way they attack women and girls is beyond the beyond.

It's also unfortunate that we won't be able to expunge those groups the way we did the Nazi Germans or the Imperial Japanese during World War II. They deserve to be wiped off the face of the earth.

Of course, it's all so very complicated.

When we routed the Taliban and Al Qaeda after 9/11, they ran off to neighboring Pakistan. At the time, President Bush said we would go after nations that harbor terrorists. Clearly, that was a lie, one among many for the worst president in American history.

The "Afghan Papers" reveal how the Pakistani intelligence organization is aiding and abetting the Taliban and Al Qaeda. In other words, one of our so-called "allies" is working to defeat us.

Not much of an ally.

We had our chance to destroy our enemies when they fled to Pakistan, but we failed to do so.

Why? Because Pakistan has nukes.

Why did we invade Iraq? Because they didn't have nukes.

The lesson the world learned, at least the "rogue" nations of Iran and North Korea?

Get nukes.

So, we can't wipe out a ragtag group of terrorists while we accelerate the pace of nuclear proliferation.

Call it a lose-lose situation.

If we're going to get tough on terrorists hiding in Pakistan, we are going to have to go in there and get them. If we don't do it now, we'll just have to do it later after a nuclear winter has descended upon our country.

It's not a popular position to take, invading such a "peaceful" place like Pakistan. That's because Americans do not really care about the evil that exists elsewhere in the world.

As we learned on 9/11, we have no choice but to care.

The fanatics will always try to attack us. We can't stop them completely. But, we can try.

The invasion of Iraq, while considered the worst foreign policy blunder in American history, also diverted military attention away from where it belonged: in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

It's obviously too late now to defeat the enemy in the "stans." We'll be stuck with a negotiated settlement where the brutalization of females, cutting off noses of 13-year-old wives or throwing acid in the faces of female primary students, will continue in that part of the world.

When will we ever learn?