To the Guy on Facebook Worried about Islamofascism:

Your rant was right out of the playbook for right-wing demagoguery. I had not known a Facebook wall comment could run so long. I can scroll my screen for several pages before reaching its end. Here's just a sample:

. . . Political "solutions" are only temporary and only give the jihadis time to regroup for another attack. 1400 years of islamic history prove this. The koran tells them it is acceptable under islamic law to break treaties when to their advantage. The command to spread islam by all means, including murder trumps all in islamic law and thought.

So the only choices we have are to keep trying to help those in Afghanistan who say they want a reformation for the purpose of instilling western democratic values in hopes that our values will change the thought patterns of those muslims, and maybe even have them reject islam, or pull all our people out and bomb every islamofascist base that shows up on our radar. If the liberal "infidels" we protect by doing this don't understand the need for such bombings, tell them to shut up and be glad we are protecting them. . . .

I spent enough time on my facebook response to you that I'm putting it here too:

On the other hand, our very presence in Afghanistan brings some monetary flow to the Taliban:

http://enduringamerica.com/2009/10/07/afghanistan-as-us-increases-troops-pentagon-aid-flows-to-taliban/

And a bridge we have built aids the opium trade:

http://www.newser.com/story/63045/us-built-bridge-supports-afghan-drug-trade.html

I know that bridge and business building in Afghanistan are very well intended, but my point is, we don't foresee unintended consequences.

Also consider, as Steve said, leaders of two factions of Taliban, Hekmatyar and Haqqani, were once allies of the CIA in fighting communism. During Charlie Wilson's war, the U.S. also fomented fundamentalism in the Middle East because religion was seen as a deterrent to communism. Nowadays, we borrow from a communist country, China, which, in fact, fought against us by proxy in Vietnam, in order to fight jihadism. Does that make sense?

Continuing the cycle of aiding, now, our future enemies, it is suspected (and likely true to some extent, I say) that Taliban fighters have gone through military training provided for Afghan forces by the U.S. and Nato:

http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175116

I sincerely thank David's cousins for doing the hardest and most risky work of serving in our military. My criticism is for our policy makers who are certainly not working as hard as our soldiers, but should be. After fighting two wars in the Middle East for longer than we fought in WWII, the only thing that is certain is that you and I will have to pay for it.