Sorry, wrong Quagmire.
Posted on 09/18/2016 9:19:14 PM PDT by Theoria
Eight years ago, President Obama pledged to wind down the war in Iraq and redouble efforts to defeat the Taliban in Afghanistan. “As president, I will make the fight against Al Qaeda and the Taliban the top priority that it should be,” he said during a campaign speech. “This is a war that we have to win.”
Lasting peace, Mr. Obama said, would depend on not only defeating the Taliban but helping “Afghans grow their economy from the bottom up.” He added, “We cannot lose Afghanistan to a future of narco-terrorism.”
Now, at the twilight of his presidency, these goals are receding further into the distance as America’s longest war deteriorates into a slow, messy slog. Yet despite this grim reality, there has been no substantive debate about Afghanistan policy on the campaign trail this year. Neither Donald Trump nor Hillary Clinton has outlined a vision to turn around, or withdraw from, a flailing military campaign.
The war in Afghanistan has cost American taxpayers in excess of $800 billion — including $115 billion for a reconstruction effort, more than the inflation-adjusted amount the United States spent on the Marshall Plan. The Afghan government remains weak, corrupt and roiled by internal rivalries. The casualty rate for Afghan troops is unsustainable. The economy is in shambles. Resurgent Taliban forces are gaining ground in rural areas and are carrying out barbaric attacks in the heart of Kabul, the capital. Despite an international investment of several billion dollars in counternarcotics initiatives, the opium trade remains a pillar of the economy and a key source of revenue for the insurgency.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Democrats lose wars. It’s what they do. They do it on purpose.
L
Napalm all the poppy fields.
Oh, wait....our marines guard them. Nevermind.
Best, cheapest, most effective “anti-terror” measure we could take?
Ban anyone from approx. 20 Mid-east, North African, South Asian countries from entering the United States, even if coming via 3rd countries.
2003:
“Dont worry guys, we’ll be back home in a year, two at most.”
sigh.
If Washington was serious, they’d freeze aid to Pakistan and threaten to arm India to the teeth if they don’t stop aiding the Taliban.
Hell, I’d invite Russia to join the ISAF, that would scare them.
They could have let USSR keep Afghanistan. Some prize.
Years ago I counselled a married couple who fought like mortal enemies. After a while I backed off. It became apparent they got some sort of odd joy and reason to live out of the conflict.
Afghanistan will always refuse peace. It’s time to let them alone.
I am among the last group of Marines allowed to drop napalm. (Vietnam - 1966)
Sell your Dow Chemical stock.
Afghanistan is the only country, in the history of the world, that is so poor and disorganized that there has never been a road between its two largest cities........ until we started building one. Now, the entire roadway is “protected” by the local militia, Taliban, thieves, whatever.
We gave the Taliban a revenue source they never had before, but we call that nation building.
Afghans aspire to anarchy, fighting, and revenge. They are the most inbred people on Earth.
Yup, nation building.......
And the absolute most unbearable thing about our allied misadventure in Afghanistan and Iraq, is the shear sense of betrayal by our political leaders to our servicemen that died and were maimed in those countries.
We thought our boys were “fighting for our country” for the purpose of liberating subjugated middle easterners who would appreciate our help.
Instead we found that the muslims were a confusing corrupt bunch, who could not be trusted to fight to maintain the freedom our men died for.
We lost 5000 men, and 20,000+ more were maimed for what, slain soldier parents and crippled soldiers ask?
That sense of betrayal is so grievously wrong, it must haunt parents, and drive in some part, our veterans to take their lives, daily.
We can Never let this happen again.
islamism needs be reduced to the levels of State shinto and
nazi Germany following WWII.
We should have left Afghanistan after the punitive expedition phase with the admonishment “don’t harbor scum like that again, or we’ll come back and mess up you over worse”, and never started the so-called nation building phase.
You can’t nation build with tribal savages grounded in Islam.
Nation buiding for muzzies is a fools’ errand, both there and here.
The Afghans are an illiterate people barely out of the stoneage. Their economy is opium. End of!
Sorry, wrong Quagmire.
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