A moral imperative

A moral imperative

I wrote a blog that embraced the troop drawdown in Iraq, a war illegally conceived, I believed. I also wrote that we should leave Afghanistan; I now believe I was wrong about leaving Afghanistan. The philosopher Immanuel Kant coined the term “a moral imperative.” A moral imperative is a course of action without a plausible alternative. When we invaded Afghanistan, that created a moral imperative; the best example is what Colon Powell told George Bush when he decided to invade Iraq, “If you break it, you own it.” The argument we spent billions helping Afghanistan defend itself is a hollow refrain; a moral imperative is absolute; you break it, you own it. You can’t just pull out of war because you don’t like it; we started the war in Afghanistan because the Taliban would not turn over Osama Bin Laden. We didn’t have to invade the country; we could have gone after Al-Qaeda and Bin Laden, but Americans wanted an invasion, and therefore, it was the politically expedient thing to do. The argument Joe Biden made yesterday was that American soldiers should not fight for Afghan’s if the Afghan army refuses to defend itself. The moral imperative applies to the Afghan people, not the Afghan army. They didn’t start a war against the Taliban; we did. Joe Biden can’t say a predecessor made a mistake, and therefore it is ok to pull out. But that’s what he did; America had a moral obligation to protect the Afghan people; today, after the fact, the Biden administration is scrambling to make it look like America is living up to its moral responsibilities, now it’s the Afghan people that are suffering at the hands of the Taliban, not Joe Biden.