OBAMA, END U.S. WAR IN AFGHANISTAN

Barack Obama is doing a review of the U.S. strategy towards Afghanistan. The review should be forthcoming soon because it is plain to all that having U.S. forces in Afghanistan is doomed to failure.

There will never be any military solution to the societal questions faced by Afghan society. Whether to have a closed, religiously oriented, fundamental society is up to the Afghanis, not a decision that can be made by American military power. You can condemn the subservient role of women in Islamic fundamental societies, but you will never change it by killing Mullah Omar or any of his supporters. For every "insurgent" killed by Americans or by their missiles, 10, 20, maybe even 100 poor Afghani youths will rise up, swearing to take vengeance on the U.S. and on Americans.

Furthermore, if Obama does not stop the fighting, there will be hundreds more American casualties. And if Obama sends in 30,000 more American troops, the number of U.S. casualties will rise exponentially.

Since the time of Alexander the Great, numerous nations have invaded Afghanistan, only to come to the grim realization that it is a country that will never allow itself to be conquered or occupied. History's story should convince Obama that it is futile to keep U.S. soldiers there.

Finally, Afghanistan is by and large a rural composite of agrarian villages, populated by a simple, uneducated people that wants to be left alone. If Obama is afraid of Afghanistan-supplied jihadists intent on killing Americans, he should mount a police action in concert with other nations.

But Obama should stop the war with its attendant bombings, killing of Afghani civilians, and 2 AM raids by overeager special forces. Don't increase U.S. troop levels. Take all U.S. forces out of Afghanistan.