All we need is descent border/immigration policies and we won’t have any trouble worth caring about Afghanistan.
We lose too many men and far too much wealth there to be worth anything it might do for us.
If terrorists are going to attack us they can do it from lots of other places.
[All we need is descent border/immigration policies and we won’t have any trouble worth caring about Afghanistan.]
All we need is for a unicorn to appear before us.
[We lose too many men and far too much wealth there to be worth anything it might do for us.]
Actually, the financial cost of all operations around the globe, about $1.8T, is mostly behind us. We’re now in maintenance mode. As to men lost in action, it’s now a couple of dozen per year.
https://www.cbo.gov/system/files?file=2018-10/54219-oco_spending.pdf
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_military_casualties_in_the_War_in_Afghanistan
[If terrorists are going to attack us they can do it from lots of other places.]
They can’t. Pakistan can use Afghanistan as a plausibly deniable intermediary for terror attacks against the US because China stands behind Pakistan. Maybe you want to invade Pakistan to avoid having a presence in Afghanistan. I don’t. It’s the same old problem we had in Vietnam. Behind North Vietnam lay China’s nuclear arsenal. Behind China lay the Soviet nuclear arsenal. It’s a real mess of Matryoshka dolls. Wheel within wheels.