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There is no end game in Afghanistan. No progress has been made in the 9 years since the initial invasion. The only rationale for staying is that leaving will create a vacuum letting Taliban and terrorist types set up bases unmolested in the country. Insurgents in Pakistani bases would move back across the border into Afghanistan - a decentralized tribal county where Kabul can only control Kabul. Better to pull out, keep an eye on the situation and lob bombs in as necessary. Playing cat and mouse and whack a mole with insurgents in the mountains is a no win situation.
Like the arguments heard about other failed wars. We can't leave because we've already sent so many young men and money and goods and so on... We can't just walk out and go since we would be saying it wasn't worth it.
What if...maybe...it WASN"T!
The taliban just went elsewhere We gonna just go and bomb them whatever country they go to? I don't think countries like Pakastan are going to go for that.
A friend of mine has a son there. Hates the country, the people and the culture. Especially hates the treatment of women and children by men and doesn't see WHY we are there in the first place.
Yes, the Russians are laughing. But then there were some of us who wondered how long it would take before we decided to declare peace and go like they did. At the cost of a huge recurring narcotics problem thanks to their war.
If the Afghans can't keep their country stable after nine year of our help then its THEIR problem, not ours.
Like the arguments heard about other failed wars. We can't leave because we've already sent so many young men and money and goods and so on... We can't just walk out and go since we would be saying it wasn't worth it.
What if...maybe...it WASN"T!
The taliban just went elsewhere We gonna just go and bomb them whatever country they go to? I don't think countries like Pakastan are going to go for that.
A friend of mine has a son there. Hates the country, the people and the culture. Especially hates the treatment of women and children by men and doesn't see WHY we are there in the first place.
Yes, the Russians are laughing. But then there were some of us who wondered how long it would take before we decided to declare peace and go like they did. At the cost of a huge recurring narcotics problem thanks to their war.
If the Afghans can't keep their country stable after nine year of our help then its THEIR problem, not ours.
I think you have hit one of my biggest concerns about our mentality towards war and conflict. The rationalization that occurs when people say, "Well we are there now we have to fix it", while at the same time putting the ' How we got in there in the first place ' down the memory hole.
This attitude and position is exactly what leads the US into so many conflicts that it finds itself embroiled in year after year, in every corner of the globe. Since people are more inclined to support personalities and parties, depending on which personality or party got us into any given war, half the country takes a blue pill and forgets it either happened or finds the most obscure reasoning once it is discovered that the original reasoning was flawed, as it so often is.
Between having a pro-war and war supportive message out of our contemporary media, and combining this with having a professional military which removes 99% of the American population from the true cost of wars, this ' we broke it now we have to fix it' mentality persist, despite history showing how devastating it really is.
You either go in with total annihilation, or you stay home.
If I punch you in the nose and stand there, what are you going to do? It could get messy!
As strongly anti-war as I am in general, I am not so naive to suggest that we should not prepare for war or even be willing to engage in it. War should be the very last resort, the last option, not the policy of first choice as concocted by some think tank full of 30 somethings. If you must engage in war, then you do it in a biblical fashion and you do it 100% with a clear mission objective stated up front. Accomplish your goal and you leave.
The only nation our government should be concerned with building is our own.
What should have been done way back when is simple.
You bomb those responsible and their allies.
You destroy their power.
You announce if there is another attack we will be back.
You warn all other nations that if they choose to allow your enemies safe havens,they will be next.
You repeat as necessary.
You do not offer to rebuild.
You do not offer aid.
What should have been done way back when is simple.
You bomb those responsible and their allies.
You destroy their power.
You announce if there is another attack we will be back.
You warn all other nations that if they choose to allow your enemies safe havens,they will be next.
You repeat as necessary.
You do not offer to rebuild.
You do not offer aid.
Actually I believe by international law if you invade...ahem....liberate another nation you are responsible for rebuilding it..
So don't send in ground troops.
Which would explain why Palestine isn't officially a nation...
Sorry, couldn't resist.
Seems a rather vague notion, as rebuild it to what standard, the one you just destroyed or one that would pass current standards? In the case of Afghanistan, much of what we have bombed were the same buildings the Russians bombed before us and the British before them, and the Persians before them....etc...
I can't really recall the details,it is basically if you occupy a nation you are responsible for it's upkeep sort of thing...
Of course in the case of Afghanistan,there was nothing to begin with.
Which makes the amounts of money and methods we are currently using even more baffling. This is why we need another trillion dollar state of the art and most expensive weapons system in human history, to turn bigger rocks into smaller ones in Afghanistan?
2 million dollar missiles to destroy 200 dollar tents and structures, perfect logic.
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