Those for whom we fight

I remember seeing this bumper sticker when I got to Fort Hood:

It was nice, but recently it's been making me think about our role in Afghanistan. I mean, ten years into our Afghan campaign, do we really still feel that our freedom is threatened? Are we really fighting for *our* freedom?

If anything, I'd say our counter-insurgency efforts are not so much for our own freedom as they are for the freedom of the Afghan people. And in my opinion, that's a much more noble cause. It's one thing to fight when you yourself are threatened. It's quite another to stand up in defense of someone else.

Of course, it doesn't hurt to have a friendly government running Afghanistan, so that idealism is backed by a strong sense of pragmatism -- it's clearly in our interest to have another moderate administration on the other side of Iran.

So what am I fighting for if not our freedom? The achievement of U.S. socio-political objectives? The promotion of participatory government in an historically autocratic country? Or even a regional counterbalance to the theocratic Islamist republic next door?

Maybe this sums it up:

It may not seem patriotic at first, but I'd argue that a true love for one's country isn't shown by one's reaction to a tragedy, but in the steady pursuit and promotion of what's best for the nation.