Whining or winning? I prefer the latter

It's time to start spending more energy on winning in Afghanistan rather than on the politics of the war.

Obama says he wants to send 30,000 more troops in country and focus operations on the population centers. That's a good plan. Obama also says he wants to start bringing the troops home in July 2011. That's a good plan, too.

A lot of talking heads give a lot of lip service to the whole "time-certain strategy" as if it is a bad thing. Well, if the Taliban and Al-Qaida were to hold back until July 2011 and lull the U.S. troops into believing that all is content and the enemy subdued, it would be a bad plan.

But the terrorists cannot be that docile — it's not in their nature — and the U.S. military is not that naive. A time-certain strategy is a good one if it helps Congress to provide the money for getting all the equipment and manpower into Afghanistan that's needed to win the war before July 2011.

The strategy also sends the fear of God into the hearts and minds of terrorists because they know when the U.S. surge is coming and coming fast to meet the timetable.

Since terrorists know of no other life than death and violence, they will not be able to resist a good fight, which they will lose.

Bottom line, the U.S. is in it to win it. If the job is not done before July 2011, then troops will remain in country. If victory is at hand, troops will start coming home. Remember, troop withdrawal is just like the war against weight, which I have been fighting all my life: You don't put on pounds over night and you don't take them off overnight either. Troop buildup happened gradually, bring the soldiers home will take some time as well.

All the troops will not be home in July 2011, and they will not be home before the war is won. So instead of focusing on whining, how about we concern ourselves with winning?