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I expect our troops will occupy Afghanistan for the rest of my life.
The United States has occupied Germany and Japan for over 70 years now, and have occupied Korea for 60.
It's the way Americans have kept their former enemies from becoming unstable and starting another war against us. While Japan stabilized within 10 years after the war ended, it took well over 40 years and the fall of the Soviet empire for Germany to stabilize.
Afghanistan is still a nation where the national government is only skin deep. Kabul has nothing to do with the provinces, especially the remote provinces, and the people who live in them are governed by the same local war lords and clerics as they were long before we came.
If we leave, the government in Kabul will fall, and Afghanistan will return to fighting with each other, region to region, all jockeying for power and money. The population will still be illiterate, the mullahs will still be the politicians, and the Taliban will still be the war lord's armies.
And all our old enemies from all over the region will just return to the safety of Afghanistan's mountains as soon as we leave. They'll re-group, train, and gather strength again in shelter, just as they did before.
There's no getting out. I fully expect all my kids will die of old age and we will still have troops there, keeping the lid on a pot that never stops boiling.
I expect our troops will occupy Afghanistan for the rest of my life.
The United States has occupied Germany and Japan for over 70 years now, and have occupied Korea for 60.
It's the way Americans have kept their former enemies from becoming unstable and starting another war against us. While Japan stabilized within 10 years after the war ended, it took well over 40 years and the fall of the Soviet empire for Germany to stabilize.
Afghanistan is still a nation where the national government is only skin deep. Kabul has nothing to do with the provinces, especially the remote provinces, and the people who live in them are governed by the same local war lords and clerics as they were long before we came.
If we leave, the government in Kabul will fall, and Afghanistan will return to fighting with each other, region to region, all jockeying for power and money. The population will still be illiterate, the mullahs will still be the politicians, and the Taliban will still be the war lord's armies.
And all our old enemies from all over the region will just return to the safety of Afghanistan's mountains as soon as we leave. They'll re-group, train, and gather strength again in shelter, just as they did before.
There's no getting out. I fully expect all my kids will die of old age and we will still have troops there, keeping the lid on a pot that never stops boiling.
The US didn't stay in Germany, Japan, and South Korea for so long in nation-building.
Those countries were already cohesive nations before their wars. They had the concept of cohesive political management from the national to the local level, the political infrastructures, the coalition of attitudes that unified them as peoples.
The US has maintained bases in those countries primarily for the geopolitical benefit of the US, not to make them nations. West Germany didn't need US forces to keep them stable as West Germany, they needed US forces to protect them against the Communist countries opposing them.
So the talks are back on, this has taken many by surprise but it cant hurt. The Taliban wasn't receptive to a cease fire in September, what changed. We will never have a complete victory as Trump stated, the only path is a compromise with the Taliban. But how do they arrive at a peaceful solution when the Taliban wont even meet with Afghan leadership.
Quote:
KABUL, Afghanistan — After abruptly axing nearly a year of delicate peace talks with the Taliban in September, President Trump put the negotiations back on the front-burner this week in a similarly jolting fashion by seeming to demand a cease-fire that his negotiators had long concluded was overly ambitious.
Despite a sense of relief at the prospect of resuming talks to end the 18-year conflict, Western diplomats and Taliban leaders were scrambling to figure out whether Mr. Trump had suddenly moved the goal posts for negotiations.
Obama said it was the "real' war and managed to get thousands of young Americans killed there for 8 years. Shouldn't Trump continue to fight there for 8 years too Dems???
So 7-8k troops will remain in harms way and at great expense in a country they have no business being in at all.
Another load of BS and spin. God you people are so gullible.
What? He campaigned on diverting funds from defense to pay for the wall? Since when has Mexico been our defense payroll? I remember the hundreds he claimed he would get Mexico to pay for the wall. Those of us with critical thinking skills not muddied by racism/fear knew that could not and would not legally happen.
Some of the defense finds that have been diverted are for projects that are really not needed. Have you been on a military installation recently?
Once again, they will not withdraw troops because they are playing too big of a roll on what is going on over there (we are talking about NATO etc).
After increasing troop levels from 67,000 to 100,000 in 2009 Obama began drawing down to 8,500. The level increased under Trump to around 15,000 and he claims he will reduce the level to when he took office which is 8,500.
Typical partisan nonsense but you're a Trump supporter so its to be expected.
Obama --8 years at war in Afghanistan
first day to last day in office, leaving another mess for someone else to clean up.
first day to last day in office, leaving another mess for someone else to clean up.
Trump is reducing the troop level to what he inherited 3 years ago and that is cause for celebration?
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