You cannot liberate people from themselves.
We could, conceivably, CONQUER Afghanistan (you know, “conquer we must, when our cause it is just”) - but there doesn’t seem to be much useful purpose in doing that.
My Afghanistan plan has not changed since December 1, 2001 - get the hell out, station B-2s on Diego Garcia and an SSBN in the Arabian Gulf, and tell the Taliban that one more ounce of trouble coming from that region will result in Biblical scale destruction.
I don’t care about their religion, I don’t care about their women, I don’t care how or if they educate their children, or how they wipe their ass. I don’t care about their goats, or if they marry them. I don’t care if they have clean water, or if they have water at all. And I especially don’t care if they hate us - if we preserve OUR society, I expect that they will. Oderint dum metuant.
That’s my Pakistan policy, too.
We might as well face it: they like being tyrannized.
We are still in Afghanistan to protect the poppies - plain and simple.
I am ALL FOR PULLING our people out of that scum hole. Not one American life is worth that dump. You cannot teach people to want to be free. That comes from inside you. If they desire to be slaves to their stupid made up religion, that is their issue. I don’t want our people dying for nothing. We have done too much of that crap in the last 40 years.
I agree completely. Going in to roust Al Qaeda is arguable. Staying in at this late stage of the game is beyond stupid.
Afghanistan cannot be “saved”. The author put it best, “they have chosen their own tyranny.”
Bump.
How is that plan working? They're killing us over there easier than they are here...only under the guise of being our friends or partners.
There's nothing like being stabbed in the back by your "friend".
In simple terms, we have lost. Move out is the only option.
I think Hamid Karzi and the average American soldier and Marine know that to win you must kill. We can pretty well assume the Taliban is mot a monolithic body and that it might be possible to resolve many issues with those rational enough to want a settlement.
The radicals must however be killed. Americans are not allowed to engage and kill. If given greater latitude, the Afghans can find those they know to be the enemy, ferret them out, and kill them where ever they are. Emphasis is on kill. Prison is not the answer. Death is the only solution
Moonbats believe that war is not the answer and will not permit even the war by proxy where by the mutual enemy is killed by the surrogate Afghan army
Andrew McCarthy really pegged it on Afghanistan. We have no mission there. We need to get out ASAP and let these godless barbarians get back to raping and torturing each other in peace.
We have satellites that can count the hairs on a mouse’s butt from outer space. If Al Queda tries to set up any new training camps we will know about it and we will just bomb them out of existence from afar. We don’t need 100,000 troops as sitting ducks there for no good reason. We are learning the same hard lesson that the Russkies and Alexander the Great learned the hard way. Leave Afghanistan alone.
I am not sure how Karzai, who is nominally the President of this neanthedal paradise but in substance is more the thieving mayor of Kabul intends to stay in power after we leave. The day we leave is the day his “army” we trained dissolves and civil war breaks out. He is a goner within a month of our leaving.My hunch is that he and his brother flee the place with the money he stole from US aid and winds up in a tony London townhouse as global poppy brokers.
I think we need a new model for keeping nations in line that doesn’t involve massive expenditures in terms of $$ and blood. Simply put: we lay down the conditions and, if they don’t comply, we bomb the stuffing out of ‘em. Or spray Agent Orange on their poppy fields. Basically, we make them feel if the pain X10 if they mess with us. No nation building, foreign aid, or reparations. They should get the message real fast.
If all else fails, nuke ‘em from space—just to be sure.
Ron Paul is dead-on right, in the case of this flea-trap crap hole. Get out yesterday.
Just as we were on the verge of turning Afghanistan from a primitive 16th century society into a corrupt twentieth-century “democracy,” something like Chicago on a good day. Well, let’s move on. Let’s try Somalia again.
Politicians are politicians and will always do what is politically expedient. The real rat bastards in this are the admirals and generals. They love the power and the perks and the great retirement where they come out with their book and tell everyone how they really would have liked to win in Afghanistan. Why do we tolerate these losers? They can’t fight their way out of a wet paper sack. Can’t fight? Get the hell out of the military. Just because you can master the bureaucratic intricacies of making flag officer doesn’t mean you can fight a war. Can’t win - no pay or retirement.
WE NEED TO GET OUT OF THAT GOD FORSKEN COUNTRY. Afghanistan isn’t even a country. It’s a collection of tribes, with different laws and rules in each tribe. The idea that we could go in there and “MAKE A COUNTRY” out of a group of tribal entities is ludicrous. Does anyone here think that once we leave, they will all of a sudden become “ONE COUNTRY”? I spent a few months in that “COUNTRY”, before they became popular with the Washington crowd. This is what I experienced in the tribal areas that I was in. Any male member of that tribe (because they were pretty much related to each other) could beat and even kill a woman, for sassing. Also, before an Afghani is married, it’s okay to “PUNK” young boys, from another tribe. I can tell you more stories of my experiences, but it would be of no use. THIS IS THE “COUNTRY” WE ARE TRYING TO SAVE FROM THEMSELVES
Americans:
1940’s - Americans beat the Nazis.
1960’s - Americans put a man on the moon.
1980’s - Americans defeated the Soviet Union.
2010’s - Americans get their asses kicked by 3rd world thugs, get held hostage by Occupy Wall Street moochers, stand idly by as would be tyrants put themselves in charge of the US government.
America: you’ve come a long way baby. :)
At least we don't have to worry about Obama using the military against us - this obvious distrust doesn't play well. While the Secret Service is likely to put themselves between Obam and a bullet, I can picture the average (nothing "average" about them) military troop stepping back and deciding it was against the ROE to stop a bad guy unless the perp was actually firing at them...