Pretty much everyone I've ever spoken to about this topic agrees with this sentiment; the questions remain of can it be done and how (in a way that doesn't make life worse for civilians or the region more unstable)?
Secretary of Defense James Mattis on Monday called for the international community to help end the war in Afghanistan and aid regional leaders in their efforts to bridge longstanding disagreements, saying that conflicts in Afghanistan have now gone on for “40 years.”
“In Afghanistan, it’s gone on now it’s approaching 40 years; 40 years is enough, and it’s time for everyone to get on board, support the United Nations, support [Indian] Prime Minister Modi, support [Afghan] President Ghani and all those who are trying to maintain peace and make for a better world here. So, we are on that track,” Mattis told reporters ahead of a meeting with his Indian counterpart, Nirmala Sitharaman.
"Now, more than ever, the illusions of division threaten our very existence. We all know the truth: more connects us than separates us. But in times of crisis the wise build bridges, while the foolish build barriers. We must find a way to look after one another as if we were one single tribe.” -King T'Challa, Black Panther
The truth is incontrovertible. Malice may attack it. ignorance may deride it, but in the end, there it is. ~Winston Churchill
ramage wrote: Pretty simple. Pack up and leave. Did it in Vietnam. 40 yrs later American tourism is booming in Vietnam.
Vietnam is NOT the middle east (read oil, money, and TRIBES) the culture,resources and overall
complex relationship within the middle east is NOT even close......your simple statement is lacking in it;s validity........JMO However I do agree it is a lost battle that we should have NEVER
entered into.
Afganistan is not the Middle East, nor is oil exported from that country. Rather, "
More than US$ 3 trillion in rare earths and precious metals under Taliban feet." Asianews.it 2/18/2011. Vietnam has as more ethnic groups as Afganistan, i.e. tribes. Money: GDP Vietnam $205 Billion, Afganistan 19+ billion.
My statement was written to be succinct, but I am happy to correct your misrepresentations with further explanation.
We do agree that the US should not have gone into Afganistan and that is what is of importance.
ramage wrote: Afganistan is not the Middle East, nor is oil exported from that country. Rather, "
More than US$ 3 trillion in rare earths and precious metals under Taliban feet." Asianews.it 2/18/2011. Vietnam has as more ethnic groups as Afganistan, i.e. tribes. Money: GDP Vietnam $205 Billion, Afganistan 19+ billion.
My statement was written to be succinct, but I am happy to correct your misrepresentations with further explanation.
We do agree that the US should not have gone into Afganistan and that is what is of importance.
www.britannica.com/place/Middle-East
Check the link... because the countries are so interlocked with each other I think you will find that Afghanistan IS considered within a broader definition.......
ramage wrote: Vietnam has as more ethnic groups as Afganistan, i.e. tribes.
Something must be getting lost in translation from English to russian and back. You couldn't possibly be suggesting that the recent history of tribal conflict in Afghanistan can be compared to Vietnam.
ramage wrote: Money: GDP Vietnam $205 Billion, Afganistan 19+ billion.
A confidential trove of government documents obtained by The Washington Post reveals that senior U.S. officials failed to tell the truth about the war in Afghanistan throughout the 18-year campaign, making rosy pronouncements they knew to be false and hiding unmistakable evidence the war had become unwinnable.
The documents were generated by a federal project examining the root failures of the longest armed conflict in U.S. history. They include more than 2,000 pages of previously unpublished notes of interviews with people who played a direct role in the war, from generals and diplomats to aid workers and Afghan officials.
The U.S. government tried to shield the identities of the vast majority of those interviewed for the project and conceal nearly all of their remarks. The Post won release of the documents under the Freedom of Information Act after a three-year legal battle.
In the interviews, more than 400 insiders offered unrestrained criticism of what went wrong in Afghanistan and how the United States became mired in nearly two decades of warfare.
With a bluntness rarely expressed in public, the interviews lay bare pent-up complaints, frustrations and confessions, along with second-guessing and backbiting.
The full story: THE AFGHANISTAN PAPERS A secret history of the war AT WAR WITH THE TRUTH
U.S. officials constantly said they were making progress. They were not, and they knew it.
By Craig Whitlock, The Washington Post | Dec. 9, 2019
Something I said in a previous topic
on the war in Afghanistan on Sept 12, 2011:
ScienceChic wrote: Won? Not yet, but my opinion is that they are slowly beating us - we are sinking further and further in debt with no clear leadership of what to do to get out.
So not only did our leadership not know what to do to get us out, but they constantly lied to us, over multiple administrations, about the gravity of our situation there and have run up more than a trillion dollars cost on this operation. This is unacceptable.
"Now, more than ever, the illusions of division threaten our very existence. We all know the truth: more connects us than separates us. But in times of crisis the wise build bridges, while the foolish build barriers. We must find a way to look after one another as if we were one single tribe.” -King T'Challa, Black Panther
The truth is incontrovertible. Malice may attack it. ignorance may deride it, but in the end, there it is. ~Winston Churchill
A movie came out decades ago called "Charlie Wilson's War". It supported bringing Afghanistan into the 20th century with schools, infrastructure, and other aid. Sadly it was a false dream. Afghanistan doesn't have the money to keep up the schools and roads we have built them. The government is still corrupt and tribal differences still loom large.
There was also a report out this week that showed the US military and diplomats have been lying about the progress they have made in the nation. Should only be expected, career military officers never want to admit they couldn't do the job they were given. Just like in Vietnam.
I never thought the US should have committed ground troops into Afghanistan after reading the histories of what happened to Soviet and British forces. Luckily the US casualties were minor compared to those other two nations, but the expense was mind boggling.
Reminds me a little of World War I, spending trillions of dollars and getting nowhere.
Time to slowly evacuate. I had hoped that President Trump would have devoted more energy to getting this done in his first term. At the cost of a million dollars a soldier, we could save billions with a smart drawdown.
Thomas Sowell: There are no solutions, just trade-offs.