The key part of the plan is to rely on newly trained Afghanistan forces. Former diplomat in Afghanistan and former Marine captain in Iraq Matthew Hoh has stated that this policy is not worth dying for. These clan-based security forces loot the countryside, sodomize its sons, and swell insurgent ranks. To think that in eighteen months we can transform a tribal based society into a united democratic nation is as far removed from reality as to think that we would be greeted with flowers as liberators in Iraq. As a young Afghanistan woman told me recently, you cannot give democracy as a gift to Afghanistan.

Chris Hedges correctly says that war is the betrayal of the young by the old. Obama's war is also a home-front betrayal. Much needed and dear resources are being sent to nation build the second most corrupt country in the world.

The promotion rich creed of counter-insurgency advocated by generals in the military has a poor track record. Obama may dismiss what I and other soldiers did in Viet Nam, but the lack of success of this same policy decades ago is well documented.

Obama's Afghanistan war is the good war for those that profit obscenely from it. It is not surprising that according to the Center for Responsive Politics' Open Secrets database, the top recipient of defense industry money in the 2008 election cycle was Barack Obama. Despite all the words to the contrary, Obama's war is going to be very costly to the United States and lessen our security.

Obama advisor Holbrooke defines success as "We'll know it when we see it." I would use the same definition for defeat. The grim reality that I see is continued sacrifices made in vain.

Paul Appell
Altona, IL