If we are going to send our children to fight a war, we need to at least give them the tools to win it.
We were right to go into Afghanistan and kick the Taliban out. We should have been a bit more brutal in our initial entrance and we should have left 10 years ago. We might have had to go back once or twice but clearly we shouldn’t be “nation building” in an Islamic cesspool like Afghanistan.
As I have stated numerous times, we lost the war in Afghanistan when we ordered the Army to burn Bibles. We lost our moral authority when that happened. IMHO we can’t get out of there soon enough.
I interpret the Constitution to allow War, operations short of war, and clandestine operations, all with the approval of Congress.
Declaration of War
Letter of Reprisal
Letter of Marque
Like with Reagan’s treatment of Libya, Afghanistan & Iraq should have been a Reprisal, carried out with ruthlessness and then redeployment, if the Congress didn’t have guts to declare war.
And even with a declaration of war I would have done just as you said, gone in, smashed the hell out of things, governments, and leaders, and then left with a promise to do it again if they bothered me again.