Remember the neo-con slogans back in 2002-2003 ? "They hate us for our freedom !" "If we don't fight them over there, they will fight us over here" etc etc. I thought it was preposterous when applied to Iraq. Now that popular support is failing, I would like to remind people what the previous administration said about Iraq and just replace it in the context of Afghanistan.
They talked about a fight between good and evil : Afghanistan is that fight. They talked about atrocities committed to the people by their government : Afghanistan is where it happens. They talked about blind and ethnic violence : Afghanistan is the perfect example for it.
 
I read this story a few days ago.
"On Monday, an Afghan man told reporters that Taliban militants cut off his nose and both ears as he headed for a polling station in central Afghanistan. "I was on my way to a polling station when Taliban stopped me and searched me. They found my voter registration card," Lal Mohammad said from a hospital bed in Kabul. He said after cutting him, they beat him unconscious with a weapon. "I regret that I went to vote," Mohammad said, crying and trying to hide his disfigured face. "What is the benefit of voting to me?"
 
And I just finished The Swallows of Kabul, by Yasmina Khadra. A short journey into the nightmare of the Taliban regime, where communication between men and women is reduced to a minimum when it's not non-existent, where women are imprisoned and considered less than animals, where children are left by themselves in the street and learn violence by throwing rocks to marginalized homeless people, where public executions and stoning are "offered" to the passers-by as a recreation etc etc.
 
http://www.curledup.com/swallows.htm
 
These people really hate us for our freedom. Our way of life. Our liberty of expression and opinion. We shouldn't leave. We shouldn't let them win.
 
PS : For those interested by Yasmina Khadra, he's a wonderful Algerian writer who's written a trilogy about the confrontation between the West and Islam. Besides The Swallows of Kabul, you also have The Attack (about the israeli-palestinian conflict) and The Sirens of Baghdad. They are short and amazing books. If you have the opportunity, read them !