Bing West is right to emphasize the inspiring qualities displayed by Dakota Meyer, Captain Will Swenson, and others who fought at Ganjigal that day:
Inside that village on the Pakistan border, the defining values of America—individual initiative, comradeship, valor and determination to prevail despite any odds—were on display.
But as we honor those traits, we have an obligation to the young men to take to heart what we are asking them to do. The president decided in early 2010 against pursuing a counterinsurgency strategy to secure most of the provinces like Kunar (where Ganjigal is located), opting instead to conduct limited forays into those areas to hunt down terrorists. Early in 2011, U.S. forces pulled out of the province. In August, however, our forces returned to Kunar, where security had deteriorated rapidly. An Army Chinook helicopter was shot down there in July by the Taliban.
Two years on from the events at Ganjigal in 2009, the conditions in Kunar province are no better than they were then, and may be worse. That's obviously not for a lack of heroism. More al-Qaeda terrorists are dead now. Is it possible to kill enough of them to make the security conditions in Kunar province moot? Is that a better strategy—more effective, more morally compelling—than counterinsurgency to secure the Afghan provinces?
The humility to acknowledge that there are no easy answers to these questions is the beginning of wisdom. The most difficult civic task of a self-governing people is to decide why and how to go to war. To make those decisions, we have to look beyond even heroism and inspiration, which may give us victories but cannot justify the fight. In a time of need, God raises up heroes. He also raises up citizens with wisdom and judgment. For the very sake of the heroes who fight for us, I pray for us to be such citizens.
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