![\"Carl](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.incrediblecharts.com\/images\/2021\/2021-08-16-carlbildt.png?w=525&ssl=1\")
<\/p>\nI would have expected the former Swedish prime minister to have a better appreciation of the challenges political leaders face when confronted with a choice like Afghanistan:<\/p>\n
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![\"Colin](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.incrediblecharts.com\/images\/2021\/2021-08-16-ct2.png?w=525&ssl=1\")
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The media focuses on the 12,000 casualties and more than $1 trillion spent over the past 20 years. A complete waste. Especially when you consider the end result. But the alternative is even worse: to continue spending good money after bad, wasting more lives unnecessarily in the process. Your first duty as a leader is to avoid another young soldier returning home with his\/her legs blown off or with brain trauma from an IED.<\/p>\n
Sacrifice is necessary when there is a clear and attainable end goal in mind. But the worst kind of sacrifice is the kind politicians make because they don’t want to take a hit in the ratings. That isn’t courage, it’s cowardice.<\/p>\n
A long, long time ago I served in a counterinsurgency operation where one of my fellow 18-year olds had his legs blown off above the knee when his horse stepped on a landmine. He died several years later. I often think of him in times like this because the conflict has long since been forgotten, the outcome was inevitable and time has marched on.<\/p>\n
No one has the right to ask young men and women to serve in those kind of circumstances. Not you, not me, nor Joe Biden.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I would have expected the former Swedish prime minister to have a better appreciation of the challenges political leaders face when confronted with a choice like Afghanistan: The media focuses on the 12,000 casualties and more than $1 trillion spent over the past 20 years. A complete waste. Especially when you consider the end result. … <\/p>\n