Replies

Well, opium has utterly exploded while we are there. There’s tons of money in that. It seems to track well to the heroin and opioid epidemic here, but of course we have the CIA to protect us from that. They are well known for never using drug organizations for money, and for finding their illicit structure useful. (French connection, Golden Triangle, Mexican Cartels, Cocaine for Contras)

Then there is the 15 billion we spend in Afghanistan in direct aid and military assistance. That’s all up for grabs and nobody wants THAT to stop.

Then there is our islamophilic leaders like Mattis, McMaster, and many others who will prattle on for hours about building a wonderful stable neocon middle east with our Islamic friends.

We also hear how its all to prevent another 9/11. This became ridiculous years ago, but just for fun, if this was true, and was such an important goal, then why would we let in large numbers of the enemy into the country? Bush and Obama each let in around 800,000 each, and our government is still wanting them to flood in. So this war is not about stopping terrorism here at home.

And then there is just plain pride and inertia. They cannot stand the idea that one day we just “leave”. Our leaders know there will never be a USS Missouri moment in Tokyo Bay and the war is over. Of course, if we stay, it will be the same 15 years from now. Low level conflict, corruption, and scattered casualties.

We heard all the time how Reagan was a war monger. I remember Grenada, and Lebanon, and an airstrike in Libya, and operation Preying Mantis against the Iranian navy.
Basically one short hard military operation every 2 years. Some lasting only a day or two.

Since 9/11 we have exceeded the combined length of WWI, WWII, Vietnam, and the Civil War. Add in about a year we can add the Korean war in. Something is gone wrong, and our leaders are benefitting from a constant state of war.

Its just a tangled mess of corruption and we needed someone to cut the gordonian knot. It remains to be seen if Trump will do that, or if 8 years from now we will be hearing about the next Afghan fighting season and another surge being needed.