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There are four Presidents with blood on their hands.

True but, as much as I hate writing this, Bush'43 had reason to go into there! The Taliban made Afghanistan a safe-haven for Osama bin Laden & al-Qaeda, with training camps and support. The 09/11/01 attacks were planned and coordinated from there. So, once that responsibility was uncovered, what was he to do?

Afghanistan has been a quagmire for every foreign invader or even attempted friend. Neither the Mongols nor Timur-the-Lame could do more than act like they had conquered it. The British Raj learned to leave it as a barrier against Imperial Russia thrusting into India. Read Kipling and see why the Brits gave up.

The Soviets lost their soul there as a step too far. Yes, the USofA supported the Afghans there but they never had any love or gratitude. And, like our efforts in the Bosnia morass should have taught us, Islam is antagonistic to non-Islam.

So now we have our comeuppance in this same land of poppy fields and Islamic / tribal hatreds. Our excuse was that we spent blood and money trying to improve their bleak backwardness, only to have it stolen over & over again. I look at this and think if we should have just negotiated from a B-52. So sad!