Let’s be reasonable, I think we’ve done a lot in Afghanistan, but for how many decades should we fight a war in Afghanistan, it’s not central to our security. Same goes for being in some Syrian provinces, not even fighting for a friendly government there.
We’ve done a lot in Afghanistan but what have we accomplished? The Taliban endure and prosper; the very troops we supposedly are trying to train, turn their guns on us. Their drug crops and trade are undiminished. Al Qaeda can regroup there anytime it wants to, and it has more time than we do.We killed a bunch of bad guys and earned the enmity of an entire populace, historically ungovernable by empires far more ruthless than we.
So I ask: what have we accomplished in 17 years there?