Democracy Over Militancy

Re: Afghan Push Went Beyond Traditional Military Goals, 19 February 2010

To the Editor:

Thom Shanker writes in his article of soldiers, instead of marching in to seize a town, entering into a province with the purpose of polling its residents to inquire as to what they would like to see from the soldiers fighting for their cause. I think that this is a brilliant idea. Following the documentary viewed in class several periods ago where natives to that area were discussing how they hate that other people are making decisions for them and thereby making the wrong decisions, I believe that this is a great act of democracy that the military is now putting into affect. Instead of barging in to blow the place up, American soldiers, partnered with President Hamid Karzai are teaming up to diplomatically request the opinions of those who are most impacted. I understand there is some level of militancy here, as pointed out in the article that obviously it's a challenge to do door to door polls in a hostile environment. However, the fact that "This is all a war of perceptions,” as General McChrystal said. “This is not a physical war in terms of how many people you kill or how much ground you capture, how many bridges you blow up. This is all in the minds of the participants.” I think that the warring sides are continuing to take steps in the right direction to give all countries involved what they want, especially America. So many people feel like a lot of the war has been caused because Americans desire to force their opinions and government style on everyone else in the world. Apparently, this is a step in a better direction.