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Article: Falling into the Afghan trap.(The World Today)
- Article from:
- USA TODAY
- Article date:
- May 1, 2009
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2009 Society for the Advancement of Education. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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THE "WAR ON TERROR" must end. Even the phrase itself is ill conceived and used for domestic political purposes that obscure the true nature of the problem. Conceptually, the term constrains the response to the real threat solely to military means. In particular, the war against terror in Afghanistan cannot be won and its continuation may damage our real national interests in the region. It is the spread of radical Islamic ideology that is the source of our difficulties--and that cannot be countered militarily.
This is not to say that, after the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, the U.S. should not have retaliated against the Taliban, which, at that juncture, ruled ...