Uncle Beemer wrote:
Agree with all of this, and to expand further, Russia is an imperialistic, expansionist state and has been throughout its history. Putin, at his core, is Russian nationalist, whose overriding goal is to expand the territory and influence of Russia. Anyone who believes otherwise is just naive.
- Does Russia attack and invade other countries on false pretexts? Yes. (Ukraine)
Your comment's are obsessive garbage, but it's a good launching point.
Syria and Lybia are proxy wars for the U.S. with the common enemy "Iran" and "Russia." It's not the overt actions of an actor like Russia, but, SO CLOSE as the distinctions do not matter.
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As a reminder, the U.S. "won" in Afghanistan when the Russians finally gave up. Then the U.S. walked away from a war-torn country with no infrastructure and a very experienced, militarized (thanks CIA) population in a geography second-to-none for fighting a ground war.
What happened next? Taliban rule. So, yes, Bush needed to rid Afghanistan of the Taliban, but, like *every* other global power before, low-intensity conflict, corruption, and a no-win scenario is all that's left.
Cheney's bizarre obsession with Iraq is another story entirely. Plans were in motion days after winning the election to invade Iraq anyway. Cheney got the perfect opportunity to make his fetish for invading Iraq a reality with 9/11.
I know few of you care for historical fact, but you can be vaguely entertained by watching "Charlie Wilson's War" and pick up a tiny bit of history along the way. **LOTS** of history books on Afghanistan and the legacy of late-stage countries who act like world powers only to spend decades, finally failing.