Posted on 03/24/2017 2:34:44 AM PDT by elhombrelibre
Americas 16-years in Afghanistan has so far resulted in 2,216 dead soldiers, 20,049 casualties, and an estimated $800 billion in direct war costs -- not including veterans health and pension payments that could reach $400 billion before its all over. Add another $100 billion of USAID reconstruction costs, which is more than the cost of the Marshall Plan to rebuild western Europe, adjusted for inflation, and youre well over a trillion dollars.
The Pentagon still has 8,400 troops in place, a figure Defense Secretary James Mattis may alter, which is why its especially troubling that Russia has decided to flex its territorial muscles and perhaps test the new Trump administrations resolve.
(Excerpt) Read more at yahoo.com ...
I’m not sure why we would object. As long as Russia is not spreading communism, and as long as they oppose terrorism, I’m okay with them in Syria, Afghanistan, and anywhere else.
At best, the neoconservatives and the newly anti-Russian liberals confuse me. The left has loved Russia for a century, and in the past few months they suddenly decided that Russia is bad? Real conservatives opposed Russia for as long as it was trying to spread communism, but what reason do we have for opposing the Russians now? Really though, I’m not confused. This is about power for those who stir up “Russia” news, not about the best interests of the United States.
So you put putin power and empire above US freedom, that of our allies and all other nations wanting to be free of his influence and the Russian empire he aspires to build? It’s odd how much goodwill he got from losing his career as a KGB Colonel with the collapse of communism and his embrace of Russian chauvinism.
So you put putin power and empire above US freedom, that of our allies and all other nations wanting to be free of his influence and the Russian empire he aspires to build? It’s odd how much goodwill he got from losing his career as a KGB Colonel with the collapse of communism and his embrace of Russian chauvinism.
exactly
USA and Russia are natural allies
Afghanistan? Take it, and "so long, and thanks for all the fish!"
It depends on what you mean by “power and empire”. I have no objection to Russia being involved in Afghanistan in the same way that so many other countries already are. I do object if they do something that threatens our interests. There is a huge range of acceptable Russian actions in that window, and I have seen no sign that they are outside that range.
Should have just dropped a hundred cobalt bombs on Afghanistan in 2001 and been done with it. Permanently.
Perhaps you're right.
They would be natural allies without putin and his president for life and his restoration of the soviet empire agenda.
They can have Afghanistan, IMO
Small correction. 2,216 might be the US deaths, but total NATO deaths is 3,529.
Beat me to it.
We don’t have the stones to glass it or otherwise neutralize the threat there, so let the Russkies be the ones taking casualties and losing troops.
This is a vitally important, if a firm axis is cemented between Russia and China it will pick up as a proxy the axis running from Iran to Syria. If such a Russia/China axis were to be consummated, Germany is likely to peel off from NATO and align itself with the new axis or consent to some sort of neutral posture.
The consequences for America and the Western world could be tragic. If America is geographically isolated, it will soon be isolated in trade and it will clearly be intimidated by adversaries who control not just trade but possess intercontinental ICBMs capable of delivering nuclear weapons. The danger is not that America will be invaded by troops wading ashore, the danger is that the left in America will join the left in Germany and simply surrender.
I wrote a vanity along these lines.
lol. But beside those little things..? :)
But why would Germany ally with these axis of evil? They’d enter the much crueler part of the world and their wealth would just be taken from them by force.
Well, said.
I agree with much of what you wrote, but the way I see it Afghanistan at this point is a CIA war. We aren’t there killing terrorists, we’re there protecting the opium trade and the CIA’s off book income stream that is being used to promote globalism and undermine U.S. liberty. All the arguments you make were made about Vietnam. Let Putin get sucked back into that quagmire, it will break Russia just as it’s doing to us. Russia is teetering financially now, returning to Afghanistan will further sap their resources.
“Russia” has never been in Afghanistan. The SOVIET UNION was our opponent in Afghanistan, and, thanks to Ronald Reagan, no longer exists. The US and RUSSIA should be allies in Afghanistan, not opponents.
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