Have you been there?
I have. It’s worlds away from anything most Americans imagine, and we gain nothing from remaining. Ever wonder what it would have been like to live in a castle during the dark ages? That’s Afghanistan—heavily barricaded, small fortifications surrounded by enemies who attack sporadically. I laughed at the sensational reports about the rocket attacks on Baghdad—all told not equal to a good week in Bagram, Kandahar, Kabul, much less Shorab or Tarin Kot!
Don’t get me wrong—we have great troops who have fought bravely for decades. All the same, you can’t win if you don’t have a goal. Don’t give me some bs platitude about “fighting over there” or bringing democracy to the masses. Unless you have some realIstic ideas about an end game.
Our allies are our worst threat and many FOBs are literally surrounded by ANA. I’d rather talk with the Taliban, because at least you know where they stand.
We’ve spent billions and Afghanistan is still Afghanistan. Afghanis aren’t coming to the states to wage jihad—most of them will never travel 100 kilometers from where they were born! They’re illiterate and impoverished people who are skilled only at defending their lands against centuries of invaders.
If you want to talk about terrorists—you need to look at the Arab Spring states. Iraq, Syria and Libya are where we need to focus. We don’t need troops on the ground there either—we need to just keep them out of our country!
It’s past time to get out.
None of you are responding to what I wrote.
I didn’t advocate not pulling out.
We should have left 17-18 years ago with there being no such thing as the Taliban.