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Afghanistan is a point of no return as everyone, and everything has has failed. After Russia tried annexing the country in the late seventies to no avail—with a little noncooperation from the US—as the communist state at the time lost tens of thousands of soldiers, the Brits and finally the US tried to tame a lawless, backward country, to no avail or success. Leave it alone; this country does not want any more than to be left alone, an Islamic rat hole intent on its observance of seventh century customs. It does not want to change, its history has shown it, its population, so long as it adheres to a false religion, tells us so. Stop wasting precious blood and money on an incorrigible rat hole infested with Islamic rats. Leave it alone to destroy itself or live by itself in its prehistoric ways, so happy with the ways of an epileptic false "prophet" named Mahomet.

Kabul, the City of Gardens, in the early 1970's - before Communists overthrew the Government, Before the Khmer Rouge-like Khalqis overthrew those Communists, before little Afghanistan single-handedly fought the Third World War against the Soviet Union (for which the USA and NATO had prepared for decades) - and before the society was depleted by millions of refugees fleeing, leaving the country ruled by "Mad Max-like" gangs and militant warlords, and before Pakistan installed the medieval, Saudi-inspired Taliban rule over the remnants.

Before those epic disasters, arguably the worst circumstances endured by any nation in the 20th century, Afghanistan was kind of nice - a quiet, pastoral, relatively safe and often charming exotic getaway. Having sat out the World Wars and enjoyed a half century of peace, strong social institutions like family and tribe provided stable support to orderly communities.

Westerners would travel the "Hippie Trail" through the country in Volkswagens on their way to India, and lay up for a few weeks with a very affordable chunk of hashish, the size of their fist, and food so cheap it was almost free. The many mountain ranges of Afghanistan were popular with German tourists for long hikes and climbs, and better than 30% of the country was forested - much of it with extensive fruit and nut plantations (the Soviet invasion denuded the country-side, to less than 3% forest). In some places, the wild remnants of ancient plantations would cover thousands of acres of public lands, and people were free to harvest as much as they could haul.

American universities had partnerships with Afghan universities developing strong agricultural programs, and Afghanistan was ahead of India in the Green Revolution of improving yields with fertilizers and new varieties.

Afghanistan was Groovy Baby. Before 1973.

Thank you for succinctly saying exactly how I feel/think about that sand box. Unless there’s an absolute need for an American to be there; it should just be considered a no man’s land.

Just leave it alone. Who knows, if the rest of the world ends up blowing itself up to extinction, maybe that rat hole with its caveman mentality will survive and continue the human race such as it is. Not really sure it would be much better than if no one survived but at least someone might live to tell the story of how we ended life as we know it on this big blue marble. Their hard and backward ways without running water or electricity may be exactly what saves them. Who are we to tell them they must change. Just leave them alone as you said.

Leave it alone to destroy itself or live by itself in its prehistoric ways

We did that. It is how we got 9/11. We left them alone, and they organized with a safe zone, and attacked us.

We learned that lesson, or should have from Vietnam. Do not give your enemy safe zones.

I have always taken this route, kill the terrorist and pull out or operate a couple of bases and periodically just go out and kill bad guys who are a threat to the US.

Bush listened to Colin Bowel’s crap you break it you own it line. Says who? Let this crap hole devolve back to a 7th century cesspool and spread the word you operate in Afghanistan and attack Americans and you will wake up with your throats cut or hear the whistle of an incoming US missile. You leave us alone, we leave you alone. But I wouldn’t waste another drop of blood and treasure on this rat hole.