Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Afghanistan: Just walk away
americanthinker.com ^ | 6/24/2017 | David Archibald

Posted on 06/24/2017 6:59:39 AM PDT by rktman

Our involvement in Afghanistan is untenable because the country is untenable. No matter what is done, Afghanistan will fail because of its galloping population growth.

When the U.S. became involved in 2001, the country had a population of 20.5 million. Now it is 34.4 million, up nearly 70 percent. In the intervening 16 years, the U.S. spent about one trillion dollars and 2,000 lives in stabilizing Afghanistan. All the stability and free food provided just created a perfect breeding environment for the natives.

The population growth rate has settled at 3.0 percent per annum. At that rate, in another 16 years, there will be 55.2 million Afghans, most of whom will need imported grain to keep body and soul together. The Afghani proclivity to breed will only be curbed by starvation. That will happen at some stage because, even if we wanted to underwrite that population expansion, getting the necessary quantity of food into the country will become more and more difficult. Perhaps that situation is beginning now. The U.N.'s Food and Agriculture Organization has reported that 8.4 million Afghans are in an acute food insecurity crisis.

(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; Government; Philosophy; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: afghanistan; battleplans; bombsaway; exitstrategy; gwot; trumpgwot
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041-6061-80 next last
Is there an end game any more? The russkies spent a lot of time and military there for zero gain. Now, after 16 years what have we got? Protected poppies?
1 posted on 06/24/2017 6:59:39 AM PDT by rktman
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: rktman

I don’t understand why free markets and democracy won’t work there. I guess Afghanistan lacks the magic dirt we have here.


2 posted on 06/24/2017 7:02:31 AM PDT by cdcdawg
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: rktman

Defoliate every crop.

Poison every well.

Dynamite every bridge, dam, and power plant.

And leave.


3 posted on 06/24/2017 7:03:30 AM PDT by BenLurkin (The above is not a statement of fact. It is either satire or opinion. Or both.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: rktman

opium


4 posted on 06/24/2017 7:07:27 AM PDT by RckyRaCoCo (FUMSM)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: rktman

Salt the earth and leave.


5 posted on 06/24/2017 7:08:00 AM PDT by mc5cents (Pray for America)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: rktman
Obama’s war. I wonder if he purposely expanded our presence there with the expectation of damaging our military.
6 posted on 06/24/2017 7:08:18 AM PDT by oldbrowser (The swamp will not surrender.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: BenLurkin

That was basically the Soviet strategy (it might have been accidental) when Hitler invaded in June of ‘41. They fell back, leaving nothing, until the Germans reached Stalingrad, exhausted and with an over extended supply line.


7 posted on 06/24/2017 7:09:27 AM PDT by JonPreston
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: rktman

We are breeding an enemy...


8 posted on 06/24/2017 7:09:57 AM PDT by wastoute (Government cannot redistribute wealth. Government can only redistribute poverty.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: cdcdawg
I don’t understand why free markets and democracy won’t work there. I guess Afghanistan lacks the magic dirt we have here.

It isn't magic dirt, it's the Culture. Our Founders openly acknowledged that the Constitution would only work for a Christian population. What they meant was that it can only work for a society of civil people who are already mostly self-policing, and thus don't need a heavy-handed federal government to be big and all-encompassing. The Afghans have a Islamic culture that is clearly very aggressively self-policing, but it is not civil by any stretch of the imagination. Freedom, laissez-faire economics, and rugged individualism do not work well in Evil ideologies. That's the difference. Once they get rid of Islam, they will have the "magic dirt" to become a positive force and a good nation... but not until then.

9 posted on 06/24/2017 7:12:36 AM PDT by Teacher317 (We have now sunk to a depth at which restatement of the obvious is the first duty of intelligent men)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: cdcdawg
Minimum requirements for a successful democracy are either a homogenous culture (Japan) or a prior history of successful democratic government.

The Bush administration's Democratic folly in Afghanistan was doomed from the start.

10 posted on 06/24/2017 7:14:33 AM PDT by caltaxed (ui)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: rktman

One of the worst counties on earth and they breed like rabbits. Are they just slow growing bomb guidance systems?


11 posted on 06/24/2017 7:14:35 AM PDT by King Moonracer (I wish I had the Tantulus field, but I'd probably wear it out.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: JonPreston
"That was basically the Soviet strategy..."

Tsar Alexander used that strategy against Napoleon long before the Soviets.

12 posted on 06/24/2017 7:17:49 AM PDT by Flag_This (Liberals are locusts.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: oldbrowser

> Obama’s war. <

I must respectfully disagree. True, Obama made a bad situation worse, as he did with everything else he touched. But Afghanistan was W’s war, to win or to lose.

Vietnam belongs to LBJ. Afghanistan belongs to George W. Bush.


13 posted on 06/24/2017 7:18:16 AM PDT by Leaning Right (I have already previewed or do not wish to preview this composition.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: rktman

We need to do away with the entire concept of post war nation building. Go in, destroy the enemy capability to wage war (or whatever’s the goal is) and come home. Warn whoever that if we have to come back it’ll be worse.


14 posted on 06/24/2017 7:18:49 AM PDT by Personal Responsibility (We need a separation of press and state!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: oldbrowser

Yup, it was the good war, dontchyaknow.


15 posted on 06/24/2017 7:20:55 AM PDT by Chgogal (I will NOT submit, therefore, Jihadists hate me.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: wastoute

Yes we are.


16 posted on 06/24/2017 7:21:46 AM PDT by Chgogal (I will NOT submit, therefore, Jihadists hate me.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: rktman

Foreign entanglements.


17 posted on 06/24/2017 7:22:07 AM PDT by ecomcon
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: cdcdawg

“I don’t understand why free markets and democracy won’t work there.”

They only work where contracts & laws are respected.


18 posted on 06/24/2017 7:23:11 AM PDT by ctdonath2 (It's not "white privilege", it's "Puritan work ethic". Behavior begets consequences.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: cdcdawg
I don’t understand why free markets and democracy won’t work there.
I guess Afghanistan lacks the magic dirt we have here.

The biggest problem is Islam.

In the 1950-1960 era Afghanistan was somewhat modernized.


19 posted on 06/24/2017 7:23:49 AM PDT by Vlad The Inhaler (Best Long Term Prepper Tactic: Beat The Muslim Demographic Tsnami - Have Big Families)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: Leaning Right

Afghanistan belongs to the Taliban, who supported bin Laden who brought down the Towers, the Pentegon and Flight 93. We kept a relatively small foot print in Afghanistan until the Ossoff Obama took over, who increased the foot print and changed the ROE.


20 posted on 06/24/2017 7:25:49 AM PDT by Chgogal (I will NOT submit, therefore, Jihadists hate me.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041-6061-80 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson