31 Americans, 7 Afghans killed in helicopter crash

Al Qaeda is over.

 

I'll admit I don't like the idea of punishing future generations of Afghans very much, so I wouldn't use nukes - besides, it's unnecessary. Something more like leveling Kabul to the ground, and letting the barbarians fight
each other to the death for the remains would be much more appropriate.

 

Hey lets kill millions of people due the actions of a small number of people. They have a grand life. choosing between starving to debt or joining al qaeda so their family can get some money to eat. It is a harsh climate to live fight a war or pretty much anything.

This whole fighting al qaeda thing was such a waste of lives and money.

 

A bullet to your head is probably good enough for me.

 

3000 Americans or a million barbarians? I'll take the 3000 Americans easily.

Not to mention that if the war had been fought in the way it should have been fought from the beginning, it would have meant less death over the long run. Which should have focused on killing Bin Laden, and killing anyone and everyone who stood between us and him. The Afghan ( and Iraqi ) invasion should have never been about building democracy, or some pathetic Wilsonian crap that Bush used.

You don't use war for something like that. You CAN'T use war for something like that. War is a tool of destruction, to destroy those who would oppose or threaten the power of the United States and to be used against those with whom no negotiation is possible. That is Al Qaeda. And that's what it should have been about. To teach barbarians what happens when you mess with the United States. But because we were stupid enough to try to build in the middle of a war, it ended up like this. Where after years of fighting and death, with more American blood and treasure lost then would have occurred in a short war, everyone loses. Just like freaking Vietnam.

 

That'll work. Burn down the country, kill millions of people.

That'll stop terrorism against America for sure. And that's exactly the kind of America I love to live in. The genocidal type.

While we are at it, why don't we exterminate the Jews, too.

 

Hopefully folks can also grieve+ TOO for the thousands of times 31 Afghans that have been killed needlessly by American forces under Bush and Obama.

 

I wonder if Bill O'Reilly will change his shirts and bumper stickers to Seals:1 Bin Laden 38

 

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Why not do both? as your subsequent posts notes, the goal of war is to destroy them enemy, and destroy his will to fight. We didn't flinch in WW2 whennit became necessary to destroy a country inorder to both defeat the enemy and save american lives.

We have a fleet of B52s, we should use them for their intended purpose. We can worry about rebuilding once the necessary destruction is wrought.

 

Nice. This seems more offensive than one's sig.

 

It's too late. I was discussing what we should have done from the beginning, not what we should do now. And after all, we have killed Bin Laden at this point and Al Qaeda's no longer a serious threat. The job did get done in the end - but at a cost far worse to America than had we treated it like a war at the beginning.

At this point, we should just leave and let the Afghans do whatever they want - if they try anything again, then you burn them to the ground that time. I actually wouldn't level the country at this point in the game - I just wouldn't be shedding any tears if we actually did it.

I don't believe the Afghans should have been exterminated. I just think that if you're going into Afghanistan to fight Al Qaeda and kill Bin Laden, you focus on that, and ONLY that. Anything else is secondary. You can rebuild a society only when the old regime has been completely vanquished after all - which is what happened with the Confederacy, or the Japanese, but not with the Vietnamese, or the Taliban.

 

Given that OBL and AQ were a tiny tiny portion of the people in Afghanistan, how does laying waste to the whole country help you achieve your goal? If anything, that just increases the power of any of type of guerilla groups. This is not a war against a government or military that has a central HQ and is sitting there waiting to fight back.

 

Wow man. 3000 americans died at the trade centers twice as many died fighting the wars. A million iraqis and afgans died most of whom did nothing except to be born in those countries. You think they are all barbarians? Most of them had nothing to do with terrorism.

 

Are you comparing ww2 Germany or japan to Afghanistan or Iraq. Afghan barely has a central government. It is a country run by warlord.

 

Conventional military tactics simply does not work well against guerrillas. That's why Vietnam and Iraq and Afghanistan have been, ultimately, drawn-out and wasteful endeavors.

Yes, it would be nice if all the bad guys were in a building, and we could just storm that building and take them out. But if they are mixing in with the general population, you can't just bomb indiscriminately. On a purely tactical level it won't work. The more ruthless you are, the more enemies you'll create and not just in Afghanistan. Also, if we are willing to bomb indiscriminately in population centers because we feel our "power" or "way of life" is being threatened, what moral standing do we have in any of these global conflicts we engage in?

 

This is what you said.

Patriotism in a nutshell..... or flower pot.

 

Indeed. Some here would have us "become" the Soviets during their occupation and attempted subjection of Afghanistan. That's not the country I live in.

 

Exactly. People who would kill millions of "barbarian" who are not actually Al Qaeda in order to get to Al Qaeda are themselves the true "barbarians."

 

Some of y'all need to brush up on your Afghan history. Kabul was pretty much leveled during the Soviet War and fighting following Soviet withdrawl. The Soviets also fought with the intention of destroying the Afghan will to fight far more indiscriminately than we have. Rather than erode the Afghan will to fight it just strengthened it.

RIP to the soldiers who paid the ultimate sacrifice for our country. As for what to do in Afghanistan I have no good solutions.