[I am curious if any one can state the mission in Afghanistan.]
The mission ought to be to stick around until the Taliban dies of old age and/or despair. The current rules of engagement are what they are. The simplest way to end the Taliban would be to kill every single Pashtun in Afghanistan or drive them into Pakistan. Since we can’t, we need to stick around until the job is done. It’s a fairly low cost endeavor* compared to WWII, during which we spent 2 years of economic output and lost 400,000 dead. If we don’t, we will get similar attacks in the future. It’s not like our rules of engagement are going to loosen up and we’ll be able to wipe the enemy’s civilian supporters out. Given their preference for terror attacks on US soil against American civilians, we are literally fighting them there so our civilians here don’t have to get bushwhacked by them here.
* The total % of annual output we’ve spent fighting in the Middle East and Central Asia so far is 5%, vs WWII’s 200%. And US casualties combined are maybe a few dozen a year, vs 200 a day during WWII.
http://icasualties.org/
"...we need to stick around until the job is done. It’s a fairly low cost endeavor* compared to WWII".
..."until the job is done"
My question was/is what exactly is the job(mission)?
And just personal curiosity, have you served in "combat"?