Posted on 08/03/2021 10:40:21 AM PDT by Vlad0
Good point. Payoffs to the Taliban would only be a fraction of the profit from Walmart and every other American retailer of China manufactured goods.
And then there is the rest of the Western World addicted to the tit of cheap chicom goods. The cost to china would be less than some loose change under a couch cushion.
Central Asia was warred over by Britain and Russia for a century. For the most part Russia won. Afghanistan has always managed to throw off its invaders.
The US is a new player to The Great Game and doesn’t have the stamina nor the wealth (nads) to keep playing. China is on the rise and will be the next foe to challenge Russia in that desolate and remote part of the world.
If anything has been learned from 200+ years of negotiating with the Afghans it is they do not keep their word.
Bkmk
Yes, I did see the movie, and yes, the defeat in Afghanistan for the Soviets was a great feel-good moment.
As for the fall of the Soviets, the collapse of the Warsaw Pact, triggered by the fall of the Berlin Wall,!was the catalyst for that downfall.
After the Soviet withdrawal, the Afghans proved they were completely unable to leverage their newfound independence and instead of building their country, they descended into a tribal warfare hellhole almost immediately thereafter which found the Taliban at the reins of power. We made that our mess by intervening as we did on behalf of the muslims. The post-911 loss of American lives and treasure, not to mention the earlier free run of al-Qaeda bear that out. We should’ve kept out of it in the 1980s.
Add to that all of the US blood and treasure lost propping Chiang Kai Shek during the CBI campaign in WWII, and during the post-WWII Chinese Civil War.
My father served in CBI in China and India during WWII. Dad was a control tower operator at Suichwan Field in China which was used by the Flying Tigers at one time as I recall. I remember what my father told me before he died.
Just blow it up.
What did your Dad say?
Taliban woulda thought twice had trump still been in office
I
Don’t
Care
.
Chiang Kai-shek and his Kuomintang Army tied down over a million or more Japanese Army forces that would have been used to defend their Pacific Islands from the Allied recounter-offensives. The price paid for those island under those conditions would have been horrible.
My father-in-law fought at Saipan, Tinian, Eniwetok and Iwo Jima. We lost 6,000 men on Iwo alone and killed 26,000 Japanese. Just imagine if the Japanese had reinforced their major Pacific island with another half-million to million men.
Also, the Kuomintang Army, along with US forces (esp. the air Force, some British troops (esp. in Burma and India), and thousands of Indian troops, prevented a Japanese conquest of all of SE and much of South Asia, as well as keeping them from driving further west in Asia/Asia Minor.
The Red Chinese forces did very little to oppose the Japanese except in their held areas, and may have had secret non-aggression agreements with the Japanese, just as Tito’s communist dominated Partisans made secret deals with the Germans and the Italians in Yugoslavia (my friends fought with both the Partisans and the Chetniks, with the Chetniks bearing the major part of the fighting).
Also, it cost us thousands of dead and wounded just to take back the Aleutian Islands which the Japanese invaded and held for years.
Each theater of war in the fight against Japanese imperialism was important, no matter what their size. Let us not denigrate the sacrifices of the Allied forces in the CBI theater and adjacent areas including the crucial Philippine Islands/Singapore/Malaysia arenas.
Not my circus, not my monkeys.
Just so.
The troglodytes and their satanic religion aren't interested in civilization. They've been this way since the 7th century.
Wait until the masses of asses get together for ramen-adomin-ding-a-ling-dong and then NUKE THE PLACE !!!!
Come back in a few decades and crush the glass back into sand with a bunch of Bulldozers and open up a resort.
Those cave dwellers have been at war since they were born and it’s not gonna stop.
I do not disagree with you about the US invading Afghanistan.
We NEVER should have sent any regular troops in there other than CIA and special forces to call in air strikes.
Trying to bring democracy to a tribal society was a mistake.
We also should have nuked Tora Bora. It would have sent a message and killed a whole bunch of extremists all at once.
What I meant about Charlie Wilson’s war was that it was accomplished without one US soldier on the ground. It was cheap in comparison to any other conflict we engaged in.
We supplied a people who were out gunned by the Soviets.
Too bad Dan Rather could not have met an untimely death while he was there.
Also, IF you have not read the book Charlie Wilson’s War is was even better than the movie.
Charlie Wilson was one of the last good Democrats before they all became Socialists. He was a Democrat because it was the only way he could get elected in his area of East Texas.
screw-em
In no way do I want to denigrate the sacrifices of the soldiers who fought in the OBI Theater. My Dad was with MacArthur in the SW Pacific and I’m sure he was glad that the Chinese tied down so many Japanese.
My negative feelings toward the KMT’s leaders come from US General, Joe Stilwell’s memoirs, “The Stilwell Papers.” The KMT military leadership bears an uncanny resemblance those in Vietnam—and Afghanistan—decades later.
I agree with you re the (non) role of the communist Chinese in the fight against Japan.
Here’s the problem. We did the same to Iraq and withdrew leaving a tyrant in its place. The American public and Congress no longer have the cajones to do what is necessary to be done in war to bring it to a conclusion. Face it, the American public is weak. If the American public is not willing to bring an enemy to its knees; if politicians run wars vs Generals and a complicit liberal media pops up at every child death worshipping terrorism, the end result is a loss. We haven’t won a war since WWII because of the factors above. You lay complete, violent waste to the lands of your enemy until they submit and you continue if they decide otherwise. Only then can we again win a war.
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