Courage or cowardice and the stakes in Afghanistan

Boris Johnson, conservative mayor of London, makes plain the stakes in Afghanistan.

To abandon Afghanistan now would be a betrayal of the fallen

"We are there with the Americans not just because it is our function to be their loyal lieutenant, the fidus Achates of Washington. We are there with the Americans in Afghanistan because the Americans are right to be there. We are there because our forces are doing their level best to improve the lives of the people of that poverty-stricken country. We are there to try our hardest to teach them the value of democracy and of educating women. We are there to do what we can to wean them off the opium crop.

Of course, no one could pretend that things are going well. Yes, it is difficult to promote women's liberation and democracy and drains and habeas corpus when you have a constant risk of attack by a resurgent Taliban. How can our troops hope to deal with the opium crop when the very brother-in-law of President Karzai turns out to be one of the biggest drugs gangsters of the lot? Of course, it is depressing that British soldiers fought and died to ensure that Afghans in Helmand could vote – and yet one in three of the ballots turns out to have been fraudulent. The position is grim.

But what is the alternative? The answer is that the alternative is even grimmer. I have an Afghan sister-in-law, and she remembers the chaos and the carnage when the Russians finally pulled out in 1989. She doesn't want the Taliban to take over the entire country, as they did before. She doesn't want Afghanistan to become a giant version of the Taliban mini-state of Waziristan. Are we really going to follow the advice of the Independent on Sunday, haul up the white flag, bring our troops home, and consign Afghanistan to a bunch of thugs and religious maniacs?"

And I do want to point out the obvious.

At every point, in these two wars, Americans and their allies have done the right thing not because they had to or were compelled to.

But because it was the right thing to do. And we just chose to do it.

And that should be contrasted with the cowardice of those who would compel our will otherwise. And still choose cowardice over that more genuine courage.

Courage is something you either choose to demonstrate. Or not. It cannot be compelled.

And that is a fact of life that only those who demonstrate it know.

Because cowards can do nothing but take that courage for granted. Because they could not possibly know any other way of life.

Because it is those with courage who keep them alive. And keep all of us moving in the right direction.

If we don't want to demonstrate that courage, that is all fine and dandy.

But folks without that kind of courage need to stop pretending to have it when they don't.

And learn to let those of us who do to do our jobs.

And stop being hamstrung by those who can't find it within themselves to offer it up.