Al Qaeda has been eliminated? You need to tell that to the people of Yemen, Iraq, Syria, Libya and yes Afghanistan.
The Taliban is NOT related to Afghan culture. The Taliban is a product of the Pakistani Maddrassas. Thousands upon thousands of young children were left orphans throughout the years of war there. The males were taken to Pakistan and put in the Madrassas and taught this ideology. It is all about power and domination, there is nothing religious about it. For all who think that Afghanistan is just a bunch of rocks, there are trillions of dollars in rare minerals in those rocks.
The people of Afghanistan are beat down. The current generation know nothing of peace, they’ve never experienced it in their entire lives. It is as foreign to them as living a life of beheadings is to us.
I am not making excuses for them, but not every Afghani is on board the Taliban. Northern Afghanistan is not as oppressed as Southern, which is predominately Pashtun. My son had to work with the ANA while over there. He said one third was Taliban, one third wanted a check and one third wanted their country back. If we WANTED we could have won this war years ago. However, you can’t play both sides in war. And that is why we have been there so long. Think, we did not try to compromise with the Japanese or the Germans. It was AFTER they surrendered that we sat down with them.
So should we invade those places too?
I don't care what the Taliban is a product of. I care that all too many of our men and women are being killed, not infrequently by the people we are supposed to be training and helping, and for what? We're not going to change Afghanistan. We're not going to turn them into a functioning democracy, or even haul them into the 18th century. It isn't worth it. We're pouring billions of dollars and hundreds of lives down an endless rathole. Get out and let the place degenerate into anarchy - again. And if anyone wants to come in and grab that trillions you claim are there then more power too them. They have to conquor the place first, and nobody has been successful at that in recorded history.
Both countries also had a different mindset. Once their leaders said the war was over that was it, no more fighting.
Excellent and accurate. A friend was with the ARG and State made messes and the military was left to clean up. You cannot work with the Taliban. You can only kill them.