Afghanistan and Iran

From USA Today: Musharraf: U.S. Afghanistan pullout would be 'disastrous'
By Tony Leys, The Des Moines Register
DES MOINES — Americans need to prepare for the likelihood that more U.S. troops will be needed in Afghanistan and that they will be there many years, the former president of neighboring Pakistan said in Iowa Saturday.
Pervez Musharraf, who resigned under pressure last year, said it would be "disastrous" for the United States to pull out of Afghanistan now. If the Taliban are allowed to return to power, he said, they surely would allow al-Qaeda terrorists to rebuild strength in Afghanistan, destabilizing the region and posing a major threat to the United States.
The only solution, he said, is for international troops, led by the United States, to establish military dominance in Afghanistan and gain the trust of people there so a long-term political solution can be formed. [Click here to read full story]

We could be there for the long haul. I tend to agree with Musharraf on this one. But, it's going to take a lot of strength, courage, and guts on the part of our people to support this. I don't think it's there. We may end up pulling out too soon and paying for it later.

I'm including an opposing view below.

From Christian Science Monitor: Forget Afghanistan. Let's nation-build at home first.
By Walter Rodgers Walter Rodgers – Fri Oct 2, 5:00 am ET
East Otis, Mass. – The assessment of the war in Afghanistan from the top US general there is grim. Without more troops, Stanley McChrystal warned in a report that was leaked recently, "The conflict will likely result in failure."
His candor should be applauded. It gives President Obama and the American public – nearly half of whom now oppose the war there – an opportunity to ask themselves how we are going to save Afghanistan when we have not figured out how to engage in successful nation-building at home. [Click here to read the full story]

His base assumptions are faulty: We have freedom here and are not engaged in an internal war where factions kill each other with extreme regularity! Our "stability factor" is very high compared to Afghanistan--they need to be brought up closer to it.

From USA Today: U.N. nuke authority to inspect Iranian facility this month
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — The head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog said Sunday there is a "shifting of gears" in Iran's confrontation with the West to more cooperation and transparency and he announced that international inspectors would visit Tehran's newly revealed uranium enrichment site on Oct. 25.
The International Atomic Energy Agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei, speaking at a joint news conference in Tehran with Iran's top nuclear official, said his agency "has no concrete proof of an ongoing weapons program in Iran." But the IAEA has "concerns about Iran's future intentions," he said. [Click here to read full story]

So Iran is going from confrontation to cooperation. Good! I believe the only reason that the Iranian government is agreeing is that they know the people will rebel if the inspectors aren't let in and they're threatened with a war. According to recent polls, the Iranian people are at least 80% pro-western and want democracy and peace with us. And we don't need to go to war with a people that likes us. If the government doesn't cooperate, we should support the people in an uprising.