Posted on 12/22/2019 4:02:37 PM PST by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
Al Villanueva was 12 when the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center prompted the U.S. to invade Afghanistan in 2001. Eighteen years, three tours of duty and five NFL seasons later, the war continues.
Mr. Villanueva, the Steelers’ left tackle and locally perhaps the most well-known veteran of the war in Afghanistan, belongs to a large Pittsburgh community of post-9/11 veterans, a portion of the nearly 800,000 who have deployed to Afghanistan with the initial mission of hunting down Osama bin Laden and the Taliban who protected him. Bin Laden is dead, but the Taliban, once nearly vanquished, continue to replenish their forces.
The U.S. reached a peace agreement in principle with the Taliban in September before President Donald Trump called it off. Mr. Trump announced a resumption in negotiations during a surprise Thanksgiving visit to troops in Afghanistan, but last week, after Taliban suicide bombers attacked Bagram Air Base, the talks paused. Those talks still do not include the Afghan government.
“The reality is that just like it happened in Vietnam, nobody will care, we will not learn any lessons, and we will continue to make the same mistakes,” said Mr. Villanueva, a former Army Ranger. “The unfortunate part is that for many families and service members, including myself, the questions regarding what we did, why we did it, and who we lost, is always going to haunt us.”
No good solution exists for ending the conflict. Leave, and risk a complete Taliban takeover, lost ground in civil liberties for women and the re-spawning of terrorist cells; stay, and pour millions more into the longest war in U.S. history while adding to the roughly 2,300 U.S. soldiers killed there.
(Excerpt) Read more at post-gazette.com ...
“No good solution exists for ending the conflict..”
Wrong. We could end it tomorrow. We simply lack the will to do it.
L
+1.
Never mind the Soviets in Afghanistan; look at our own experience in Vietnam for lessons. If the native population won’t fight the war, then there is no reason for us to. Many ARVN died honorably for their young country, but too many South Vietnamese wouldn’t shoulder the burden of the war. Vietnamization failed, and the final nail was driven into their coffin when Dems in Congress cut off their aid.
I think it would have been more punishment for the Soviets if we just let them keep Afghanistan.
They weren’t there to “keep it”; just like our presence in South Vietnam, they were asked by an ally (the Afghan government) to help control it. We certainly didn’t benefit when the Soviets left; we ended up with the situation today (mad Muslims armed with Soviet AND American weaponry).
Afghanistan would certainly had been better off. At least the Soviets would have moved them to the 20th Century, and kept the Islamic terrorists at bay.
I don’t think too many people in Afghanistan (or Iran, among others) view the 20th century as something to strive for.
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