By: Daniel Nardini

I really do admire Major General Peter Fuller for being candid about what he thinks is happening in Afghanistan. Speaking to the newsmedia Politico , Fuller made it clear that he had a low opinion about Afghan President Hamid Karzai and the Afghan government in general. He also felt that not only is the Afghan government out-of-touch with reality but that it does not understand the sacrifices made by American soldiers nor the money spent by the U.S. government for the preservation of the Afghan government. Fuller was incensed by Karzai stating that Afghanistan would side with Pakistan if the U.S. and Pakistan ever went to war. But the most poignant statement Fuller made was why were we in Afghanistan in the first place if we are dealing with a government that is not only out-of-touch with reality but essentially wasting American resources and lives?

For this Fuller was fired and he will either be re-assigned elsewhere or forced to retire. But Fuller was asking questions that many Americans are thinking out loud. Why are we still in Afghanistan ten years later? If the mission was to take out the Al Qaeda training bases, stop the Taliban from aiding Al Qaeda, and to get Osama bin Laden and basically destroy his Al Qaeda network then all of this has been accomplished. If it is to help keep a corrupt and incompetent government in control in Afghanistan and to fight an insurgency then it seems we are failing. Unlike Iraq, where the U.S. military largely out-sourced the fighting and control of the country to the majority Iraqi Shiites, there really is no one for the U.S. to out-source the Afghan War to. We have the former warlords who were unpopular before the rise of the Taliban, and they were largely the reason why the Taliban easily took control of Afghanistan. It seems that history may be repeating itself.

Fuller, who was supposed to be training American and Afghan troops in Afghanistan, has seen firsthand the poor quality of the Afghan soldiers he is training, but more important the tough quality of the enemy he is fighting. And there is no question that he is wondering why America is wasting its money, resources and above all American lives for a government that could care less about them. It is not unknown for local warlords to support the Afghan government the one moment and the Taliban and Haqqani fighters the next. Worse, these same warlords are giving money to the other side in order for the other side not to knock them off. Of course, U.S. President Barack Obama says that the U.S.-Afghanistan alliance is “solid.” But with so many revelations occurring about the Afghan government being anything but competent, one has to ask why are we over there in the first place? I am sure Major General Peter Fuller is asking the same questions.