THE UNITED STATES & AFGHANISTAN.

Afghanistan was where Osama Bin Laden plotted his September 11th 2001 attacks on the United States; and it has also been a hot spot, because the Taliban would want to redeem it after the group was defeated by the Bush administration, and forced it to withdraw from making that country its main base.

President Barack Obama has plans to end U.S. combat operations there and would hand complete autonomy to Hamid Karzai, president of Afghanistan, before the end of 2014, which many Americans favored.

Lately, relations there have become strident, because to the burning of the Quran at a U.S. base, and that has caused the death of two military advisers and four officers. Those killings happened as a retribution for the incident, which president Obama described as "inadvertent", and later on apologized for its occurrence.

The Afghan military officers, who have turned their guns on the U.S. servicemen and their advisers, have not been identified and arrested, and therefore tensions would remain high between the Americans and the Afghans; which might have provoked one officer to kill several Afghan civilians, among whom were children.

It must be realized that, because of the turbulent nature of that region, the two countries, the U.S. and Afghanistan, must continue to share a common interest, and that was to maintain peace.

There was also the side of the equation that was equally important, and that was to free that country from terrorists activities, and to keep Afghanistan out of the hands of the Taliban, who were constantly staging a "come back" of some sorts.

Also that the Afghan military and security forces have to be trained to protect the country's boundaries and be able to defend their own national sovereignty, and that was a formidable task for the U.S.

However, that was necessary, if there would ever be a strong government in Afghanistan to sustain the level of political advancement and retain the military advisement that would ensure the country's true independence. Democracy has been established there, and it was up to the people themselves to nourish and cherish it.

Many people referred to that as "nation building" on the part of the U.S.; and they were even saying that its (U.S.) presence in Afghanistan was unnecessary, due to the cost, in terms of money and the loss of American lives.

They refuse to think back about 9/11, and the idea that, if the Taliban was allowed to return, so much would have been wasted, and the assurance that there would not be any more attacks by terrorists could not be substantiated in any physical or possible way.

Of course, the burden to help the Karzai government to survive was costly; yet, the stakes to leave that government to its own fate would only go against the U.S. own national security; as that country could be overrun by Iran or Pakistan or any other entity, and the dangers there would then increase and could become far more worse than now.

"Sixty percent of Americans say the war in Afghanistan has not been not worth fighting and just 30 percent believe the Afghan public supports the U.S. mission there — marking the sour state of attitudes on the war even before the shooting rampage allegedly by a U.S. soldier this weekend."

That was what an article in today's ABC News (03/12/12) was indicating; but if the U.S. left without preparing that country for its future, that would create more problems, which would not sit well with the same number of people that were advocating for a withdrawal by U.S. forces.

In other words, a pullout would demonstrate the fickle mindedness that it (U.S) had, that its forces could not remain in a war for any considerable length of time; the soldiers would pack up and go home, when the situation became difficult.

However, that could not be true, as U.S. was still in Europe, after the Second World War; and it was doing the same, with respect to Korea and Japan.

What would therefore be required of the U.S. would be to have patience, and at the same time, assure the Afghans that the two countries would always act in concert toward a common goal; and that any type of animosity should stop forthwith.

That would be the responsibility of both leaders, Obama and Karzai, to engage in a serious dialogue, in which the mutual benefits, to safeguard peace and security, were paramount.