AN AMERICAN SOLDIER SPEAKS HIS MIND ABOUT THE REAL SITUATION IN AFGHANISTAN

‘At least 2/3s of the province we are in is firmly under control of the Taliban’

Forget all that phony propaganda about how well things are going in Afghanistan. One of my former students and a longtime close friend - an Army Ranger on active duty in Afghanistan with his reserve unit - sent me the real skinny on the forthcoming transition in which the Afghans are expected to take over the fight against the Taliban.

My friend is a police officer in civilian life. After returning home for a short emergency leave, he is now back on the front lines with his unit. His unit is scheduled to leave Afghanistan by September 1.

He doesn’t have a high opinion of Obama and I suspect, neither do his fellow soldiers.

Here is what he wrote:

I am currently deployed to Afghanistan and going into harm's way for the benefit and freedom of Muslims. All of America and the free world is being conned by a consummate liar [President Obama] whose only real agenda is to stay in office and keep the elitist Democrats in power another 4 years, so he can further his idealistic world view and have us go the way of the Western Europeans.

Afghanistan IS NOT ready for transition . . . at least 2/3s of the province we are in is firmly under control of the Taliban, but it will be handed over to full Afghan control before the end of the year when our friends and allies, the French, and we, pull out. I don't expect the provincial governor to live much beyond 6 weeks. He has told us he fears for his life inside his own compound.

And now, dancing with the Devil and trying to preserve his own life, [Afghan President] Karzai has threatened us by declaring that any further airstrikes will "be considered an act of aggression." We should all leave now and see if the deal he has made with the Taliban is honored.

In one of those moments of bitter irony, I was going through Dulles Intl. Airport last week on my way home on emergency leave. I stopped in a CNBC Newsstand to buy some toiletries and the clerk there was an Afghan woman. When she saw my assault pack, she asked me if I was in the military, what branch, and where was I stationed so she could give me a 10% discount off of their ridiculously inflated prices.

When I told her I was in Afghanistan, she said "We, the people, are very much afraid when you leave." It took me a moment, due to her heavy accent and improper sentence structure to understand her meaning, but when I did, I told her, "Mam, I know this is not the answer you are looking for, but you have every reason to be afraid."