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Is it Time to Get Out of Afghanistan?
Power Line ^ | 4/3/11 | John Hinderaker

Posted on 04/03/2011 6:07:30 PM PDT by Nachum

I think it is. In the aftermath of September 11, we had no choice but to overthrow the Taliban, destroy al Qaeda's training centers and kill and scatter as many al Qaeda and Taliban terrorists as possible. We did that, brilliantly. Bin Laden escaped by the skin of his teeth, but al Qaeda has never recovered from that initial devastation. Since then, for going on nine years, we have pursued a somewhat half-hearted peacekeeping/democracy policy in Afghanistan. The Bush administration was right, I think, not to devote excessive resources to Afghanistan

(Excerpt) Read more at powerlineblog.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: afghanistan; out; time
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To: PapaBear3625

And then they would have run to Afghanistan. Pakistan is not Afghanistan and they have nuclear weapons. It is delicate enough to get behind the scenes permission to bomb Taliban hideouts in Pakistan.


21 posted on 04/03/2011 6:42:53 PM PDT by Blood of Tyrants (Islam is the religion of Satan and Mohammed was his minion.)
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To: Nachum

Sometimes I feel there is nothing in that part of the world is worth helping or saving. Lets bring the guys and gals home with a warning that the next time you will have to clean up all the glass.


22 posted on 04/03/2011 6:42:57 PM PDT by Logical me
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To: Nachum

We have been there almost nine years and no victory is in sight.
World War II was over in less than five years, for crying out loud!

If we plan on winning we should stop the political correctness, do whatever it takes to win and get out.

If we don’t plan on a win we should still stop the political correctness and get out now.

Without a clear victory and destruction of the enemy they will just take over as soon as we leave, no matter if it is next month or next year.

I don’t believe the politicians plan on winnng.
In that case honorable Americans are dying for no good reason and we should end it ASAP.


23 posted on 04/03/2011 6:43:03 PM PDT by Iron Munro ("Our country's founders cherished liberty, not democracy." -- Ron Paul)
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To: Nachum
"You have been in Afghanistan, I perceive." --Sherlock Holmes


24 posted on 04/03/2011 6:44:07 PM PDT by Sooth2222 ("Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of congress. But I repeat myself." M.Twain)
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To: Nachum

Afghanistan really is appalling.

Some NATO countries have paid heavily in blood and lives - the US, Canada, Britain, and more - but for what?

We were trying to give the people a better place to live, and they just want to grow opium to poison our streets. We tried to give them a better government, and now it turns out Karzai and his family are as corrupt as they come, even being part of that opium-heroin business.

We tried, they don’t appreciate our efforts. Enough is enough.


25 posted on 04/03/2011 6:47:16 PM PDT by canuck_conservative
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To: Nachum

Time to get out of 90% of the countries we have our military in. Bring the troops home and put enough on our southern border to seal it.

Exploit our own oil resources both on and offshore.

Build one hundred new nuclear power plants.

End the Fed and back the buck with tangible assets like a basket of commodities.

Disolve the union known as the United States with each state becoming a nation state unto it’s own. They would then be free to form alliances with neighboring states as it suits their own political/economic beliefs. The commie libs can have New England. Conservatives their region. Libertarians theirs and so on.

Each state would then be free to deal with illegals as they see fit and so on.

Maximum freedom coupled with responsibility. Absolute protection of life, liberty and property by the downsized state gov’ts remaining.

What else. Socialists can all go to Cuba.

Right to keep and bear arms truly uninfringed so I can carry my Glock whereever and whenever on airplanes, courthouses and anywhere else I am inclined. If I were on one of the hijacked aircraft on 9/11 there would have been a handful of dead arabs and we would have kept flying to where the pilot wanted.

Makes me sick how the U.S. gov’t has destroyed America.

End of rant.


26 posted on 04/03/2011 6:50:15 PM PDT by rightwingjew
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To: canuck_conservative

Replace the A-10s with crop dusters carrying Roundup insecticide and spray every opium field that we can find.


27 posted on 04/03/2011 6:50:28 PM PDT by Blood of Tyrants (Islam is the religion of Satan and Mohammed was his minion.)
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To: Nachum

Yes. I had three returning nephews last year. Between them they served seven tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. Two Marines, one Army. The consensus of the last two (Marine/Army, working training camps) was that the US is merely in Afghanistan training the next round of terrorists for the Brotherhood for free! They absolutely couldln’t turn their backs on any one of them. The mission is incredibly stupid.

Bush had it right! Send in the drones, kill the terrorists and get out.


28 posted on 04/03/2011 6:54:36 PM PDT by RowdyFFC (.)
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To: Nachum

We should have let, why, helped the Soviets bring Workers Paradise to the land. At the very least, the historical monuments, destroyed later by the Talis, would have been preserved. Instead, we have our and our allies boys dying for nothing. Hopeless.

29 posted on 04/03/2011 6:56:24 PM PDT by Revolting cat! (Let us prey!)
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To: Nachum
We shouldn't have been in Afghanistan for longer than it took for bin Laden to leave. Before we went in, we demanded that Afghanistan turn over the bin Laden gang in their country. Presumably, we wouldn't have gone in if the bin Laden gang had been turned over to us. When we went in and failed to capture our prey, which had fled to Pakistan, our purpose for going in escaped with bin Laden.

Why didn't we pursue bin Laden into Pakistan? That's never been clear to me.

Why didn't we leave Afghanistan after bin Laden escaped? Because that would have looked like a failed mission. So, instead of accepting a failed mission, we then had to change the mission to something that might eventually succeed or at least not fail for several years.

It's easier to get into these things than it is to get out.

30 posted on 04/03/2011 7:00:07 PM PDT by Walts Ice Pick
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To: Blood of Tyrants; Nachum

You know, there’s also one other very big advantage to getting out of Afghanistan -

currently, it’s surrounded by countries hostile / unwilling to help NATO there .... so every single supply must be flown or trucked in via Pakistan - and Pakistan is exploiting that fact to the max, including playing fast and loose with the Taliban, because they know they have us by the short hairs.

So getting out of Afghanistan allows us to finally tell Pakistan to go to hell and put the screws to those backstabbing bastards.

(and we could probably get a lot of help from India on that one)


31 posted on 04/03/2011 7:02:56 PM PDT by canuck_conservative
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To: Nachum
I agree that it's time to get out, but about 50-60 years ago (like Iran), Afghanistan was once a pretty normal nation (before radical Muslims destroyed it). Women wore skirts, attended the university and worked as teachers, doctors and nurses.

This article contains about 25 images of the country in the late 1950s/early 1960s. It didn't look that much different than the U.S.

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2010/05/27/once_upon_a_time_in_afghanistan

32 posted on 04/03/2011 7:05:20 PM PDT by bwc2221
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To: Travis McGee

So our women soldiers lives are being endangered by being forced to wear a SCARF instead of a HELMUT. Who the H came up with this dangerous policy?


33 posted on 04/03/2011 7:07:37 PM PDT by Marty62 (Marty60)
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To: Nachum

I never gave two shits about girls going to school, or their women, or blah blah blah. Who cares? I care about AMERICANS. Bomb the living crap out them. Keep them in the Middle ages, napalm the poppy fields, and profile on airplanes so that every Afghan is cavity searched. Then GTFO.


34 posted on 04/03/2011 7:18:13 PM PDT by montag813 (http://www.facebook.com/StandWithArizona)
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To: canuck_conservative
“but for what?”

We destroyed the Taliban, killed many thousands? tens of thousands, of their fighters, destroyed their military assets. Pretty devastating.

35 posted on 04/03/2011 7:18:31 PM PDT by dhs12345
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To: Nachum

Anybody hear from OBL lately? You’da thought he’d come out and say something by now.


36 posted on 04/03/2011 7:22:37 PM PDT by SkyDancer ("If You Don't Read The News You're Uninformed, If You Do Read The News You're Misinformed")
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To: Nachum

1.Pull all regular ground troops out now.

2.Frequently and mercilessly napalm all poppy fields.

3.Keep UAV’s, bombers, A10’s, AC-130s, and attack helicopters in the sky and putting ordinance on targets. Think of it as live-fire training to keep the fliers sharp.

4.Keep Spec-Ops busy there as well. Again, think live-fire training.

That backward-assed country is not ready to join the 21st century. Hell, it’s not even ready to join the 15th century.


37 posted on 04/03/2011 7:29:07 PM PDT by EricT. (Can we start hanging them yet?)
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To: SkyDancer
Anybody hear from OBL lately? You’da thought he’d come out and say something by now.

His last couple of CD's flopped and he wasn't even mentioned at the Grammys. His agent thinks his career was suffering from overexposure.

There's been talk of him teaming up with Charlie Sheen for a European tour next fall. Stay tuned.

38 posted on 04/03/2011 7:30:28 PM PDT by Walts Ice Pick
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To: Nachum

Time to get the US out of Germany.


39 posted on 04/03/2011 7:32:16 PM PDT by Paladin2
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To: Nachum

The time to get out of Afghanistan was before Christmas 2001, right after the 4 Trident warheads buried Bin Laden and his buddies at Tora Bora.


40 posted on 04/03/2011 7:33:39 PM PDT by Jim Noble (The Constitution is overthrown. The Revolution is betrayed.)
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