Escalation in Afghanistan

The United States launched a massive operation in southern Afghanistan this week, apparently aimed at defeating Taliban strongholds. This is a coordinated effort between the Marines and indigenous Afghan forces in an operation called Khanjar, or "Strike of Sword." This operation reveals a fatal flaw in US strategy in Afghanistan. Sergeant Charles Marsh said of the operation,

The combined U.S. and Afghan mission is to provide security for population
centers along the Helmand river valley and to connect local citizens with their
legitimate government while establishing stable and secure conditions for
national elections scheduled in August as well as to enhance security in the
future

How is this advancing vital US security interests? This is no different from any nation building missions of the 1990's. It's simply not the responsibility of the United States military to ensure stable conditions for elections or democratic processes. Obviously we would like to see a stable, peaceful, democratic Afghanistan emerge, but history suggests that is a triumph of hope over experience. Indeed, powerful nations like the British Empire and the Soviet Union were caught in the Afghan quagmire, and both learned the same lesson: Afghans do not like foreign occupiers. The United States is destined to learn this lesson the hard way.

Furthermore, why are we so concerned with the Taliban? Prof. John Muellar of Ohio State pointed out correctly that the so called risks associated with letting the Taliban return to power in Afghanistan is not worth a long war it will take to remove them from power permanently. The Taliban isn't stupid, they're not going to let al-Qaeda prop back up, considering that's what go them thrown out of power in the first place. They are merely concerned with their own security and legitimizing their power within the territorial constraints of Afghanistan.

If we want to preserve the security of Americans, the best way to do that is to de-escalate from Afghanistan, not adding tens of thousands more troops like the Obama administration wants. War in Afghanistan is a fruitless endeavor as we don't understand the culture (much like Iraq) enough to stabilize democracy and advance our security interests. A compromise could be to leave residual forces in (special ops perhaps) to work in coordination with the Afghan police to counter whatever terrorists remain in the country.