America has lost the war in Afghanistan

I choose to look at the bright side. You knew Trump actually had to do something to at least change the narrative away from he is a racist moron.
You had to know he would do something militarily to distract the press.

Thank God it is not invading Venezuela (sorry those who think the NYT is the left of any real news ) or doing something dangerous wrt to N. Korea, China or Russia.

I do feel so sorry for the American troops and their families who will be sacrificed as so often happens because American presidents do not have the moral courage to withdraw from failed foreign wars, as has been done since at least the days of Nixon in Vietnam through Obama with Afghanistan , but instead are concerned with their poll numbers.. I am also feel sorry for the Afghans who will be killed as we escalate a war that they are better off resolving themselves without suffering from foreign intervention. Too bad for all the American who might benefit from increased social spending or infrastructure spending instead of pouring it down the Afghan ratwhole.

 

I was all for the invasion of Afghanistan post-9/11, and haven't changed my opinion. I felt just as strongly that the Bush II invasion of Iraq was a catastrophic mistake and said so here at the time. Had we put a fraction of those resources into finding and killing bin Laden, instead of pulling resources from both Afghanistan and Europe for Bush II's war, my opinion is that we could have taken out AQ's leadership (and we had crushed the Taliban), declared victory in Afghanistan, and pulled out.

The Middle East would be far more stable, Afghanistan would be someone else's problem (preferably the Afghan's), the so-called "Caliphate" would never have appeared - one could go on. Without question, the United States would be seen as far more powerful than we are today, because we would be far more powerful. The deficit wouldn't be near what it is today. The consequences of the second invasion of Iraq were and remain so great that it is honestly difficult to quantify, certainly in a post in D&D.

 

We are still in the country so the left could show it was the good war compared to Iraq and that they were willing to go to war.

Obama had to increase troops to offset him calling Iraq a stupid war despite it being far less winnable now it looks like we plan to spend even more time there.

 

^In other words, what the typical Trump supporter thinks we should do in Afghanistan is OBAMA BAD! OBAMA BAD! OBAMA BAD!

It's true of course - the oft-neglected mountain city of of Obamabad is the strategic linchpin to the whole problem!

 

Obama painted himself in a corner. Not his fault. I think we should pull out.

If anything my post was a response to Deckard saying IRAQ bad! because that is what the entire war has been about for the last 8 years.

 

"Good war" vs. "bad war"-- I think the argument is about whether there was a legitimate reason to start each war. With Afghanistan, there is at least the argument that the was started with a legitimate goal of getting Bin Laden and Al Qaeda. With Iraq, the argument is that the reason for invasion, the non-existent WMD cache, was a fake and illegitimate.

As the war go on, though, the difference become less relevant. Fighting still leaves people dead and could create political chaos, no matter the initial reason from years ago. A decision on what to do now has to be based on what is to be gained and lost in the future.

 

Link?

 

I'm not addressing the problems of today in Afghanistan, which reasonably could be traced back to the invasion. I'm certainly not commenting on the "4,000 troops" being sent back there. My post was about the catastrophic result of Bush II's Iraq War on the war in Afghanistan, the power and economy of the US, and the Middle East. I'll repeat it. Bush II's war on Iraq drained military and intelligence resources as well as money from the hunt for bin Laden and the leadership of AQ, and the destruction of AQ in Afghanistan. It was a direct response to 9/11, and like I said, I have no problem with that aspect of the War in Afghanistan, just as I wasn't opposed to the Gulf War to take back Kuwait from Saddam. Bush Senior didn't attempt nation building there and wisely pulled out of Iraq, declaring mission accomplished when it wasn't an exaggeration.

 

In other words, what the typical Democrat thinks we should do in Afghanistan is BUSH BAD! BUSH BAD! BUSH BAD!

 

Interesting.

 

We should burn the poppy fields and go.

We can always come back and kick ass if needed.