Fein: It's the nation building, stupid!

For the sake of completeness, here is a recent letter to the Washington Times from Jane Harman's potential Republican challenger, Mattie Fein. Fein was responding to the Harman op/ed that appeared on Sept. 10.

The issue isn't simply the corruption ("It's the corruption, stupid!" Opinion, Thursday). It's whether the U.S. military is the instrument for ending Afghanistan's corrupt, ethnically splintered, sectarian and inept government, stupid!

Why should a single American soldier risk life and limb in Afghanistan if the defeat of the Taliban or al Qaeda there depends on an Afghan democracy that Common Cause would salute? U.S. military personnel are and should be trained for one mission and one mission only: to kill the enemy. They are not and should not be in the business of promoting clean and efficient government -- especially in Afghanistan, where weak, corrupt, tribal and despotic rule has prevailed for millenniums.

The henpecking of Rep. Jane Harman, California Democrat, is akin to throwing a snowball into hell to quell the heat. If she truly believes what she wrote about Afghanistan and corruption, she would be demanding an immediate withdrawal of troops to avoid senseless American casualties.

Fein has formed an exploratory committee to look into a run against Harman next year.