Remember the rights of the savage as we call him. Remember that the happiness of his humble home remember that the sanctity of life in the hill villages of Afghanistan among the winter snows is as inviolable in the eye of Almighty God as can be your own.

As a 22-year Army Veteran who served in Operations Desert Storm and Iraqi Freedom and as a Civilian Advisor to the Afghan Army in Operation Enduring Freedom I understand both the gravity of giving the order and the challenge of carrying it out.

A fly cannot go in unless it stops somewhere therefore weapons fuel food money will not go to Afghanistan unless the neighbors of Afghanistan are working are cooperating either being themselves the origin or the transit.

The Afghans did not have sophisticated weapons like the Soviets did but with their faith they defeated a superpower.

The West has been able to bring Afghanistan a much better health service better education better roads a better economy though some have benefited more some have benefited less from that economic well-being in Afghanistan.

I don't think the Palestinian people or Afghan children or some other things I'm concerned about are at the top of other people's agendas - not right now when America is going through such a recession and people are suffering across the board financially. But I think all that will change.

If there's ever an example that military power alone cannot be successful in Afghanistan I think it was the Soviet experience.

Look at the Afghans during the time of the Soviet invasion. They were among the poorest Muslims in the world yet they were sustained by their faith in God and God alone.