The country wants to stay in the year 1600 with modern guns, I don't understand how or why we should care.
Remind me?
The country wants to stay in the year 1600 with modern guns, I don't understand how or why we should care.
Remind me?
Because we oppose the rape and enslavement of women.
Hair sniffing is a different matter.
It was all just a political show to convince people in the US that we were doing something to stop Al Qaeda. Very early on in the conflict, all of the Al Qaeda leadership slipped across the border and set up shop in Pakistan. The US could not go into Pakistan for fear that doing so would destabilize the government and put nukes into the hands of a militant Islamist government. So, the US just put on a show in Afghanistan purely for domestic political consumption.
The US could have easily routed the Taliban at just about any point in the conflict. But doing so would have required the US to commit very large numbers of US forces, mostly to be able to hold territory and root out militants who try to blend back into the population. That requires the US to effectively take control over the country and run things while a transitional government is given time to get ready to run the country. The US never wanted to do that because they feared that it would be seen as colonization and draw in combatants from all over the Middle East and South Asia, essentially a repeat of the Soviet war in Afghanistan.
So, the plan was to just hold off the Taliban and keep some areas free of Taliban control until such time as Al Qeada was not longer a threat. Al Qeada morphed into ISIS. ISIS was routed in Syria and Iraq primarily by Iraqi and Kurdish forces with support from US and Russia. The Taliban have no interest in international terrorism. They just want their country back from the western invaders. Most people in Afghanistan hate the Taliban but also hate the corrupt US backed government and having US drone strikes in the middle of the night. So, the Taliban is able to steam roll across the country because no one is interesting in dying for the US backed corrupt government.
Precious Roy wrote:
It was all just a political show to convince people in the US that we were doing something to stop Al Qaeda. Very early on in the conflict, all of the Al Qaeda leadership slipped across the border and set up shop in Pakistan. The US could not go into Pakistan for fear that doing so would destabilize the government and put nukes into the hands of a militant Islamist government. So, the US just put on a show in Afghanistan purely for domestic political consumption.
The US could have easily routed the Taliban at just about any point in the conflict. But doing so would have required the US to commit very large numbers of US forces, mostly to be able to hold territory and root out militants who try to blend back into the population. That requires the US to effectively take control over the country and run things while a transitional government is given time to get ready to run the country. The US never wanted to do that because they feared that it would be seen as colonization and draw in combatants from all over the Middle East and South Asia, essentially a repeat of the Soviet war in Afghanistan.
So, the plan was to just hold off the Taliban and keep some areas free of Taliban control until such time as Al Qeada was not longer a threat. Al Qeada morphed into ISIS. ISIS was routed in Syria and Iraq primarily by Iraqi and Kurdish forces with support from US and Russia. The Taliban have no interest in international terrorism. They just want their country back from the western invaders. Most people in Afghanistan hate the Taliban but also hate the corrupt US backed government and having US drone strikes in the middle of the night. So, the Taliban is able to steam roll across the country because no one is interesting in dying for the US backed corrupt government.
You are thinking at the O-6 or maybe O-7 level. There have always been concerns at the Joint Chief of Staff/Secretary of Defense/Secretary of State/President level.
China has a China-Afghanistan border. China never was going to tolerate a significant U.S. military presence in Afghanistan. Would U.S. be happy if China sent a 1/4 million troops to Cuba?
You were correct regarding a show for U.S. citizens.
CrispyChicken wrote:
Because we oppose the rape and enslavement of women.
Hair sniffing is a different matter.
Are you even old enough to be on this site? You seem to believe U.S. troops are deployed to prevent women from being raped.
Precious Roy wrote:
It was all just a political show to convince people in the US that we were doing something to stop Al Qaeda. Very early on in the conflict, all of the Al Qaeda leadership slipped across the border and set up shop in Pakistan. The US could not go into Pakistan for fear that doing so would destabilize the government and put nukes into the hands of a militant Islamist government. So, the US just put on a show in Afghanistan purely for domestic political consumption.
The US could have easily routed the Taliban at just about any point in the conflict. But doing so would have required the US to commit very large numbers of US forces, mostly to be able to hold territory and root out militants who try to blend back into the population. That requires the US to effectively take control over the country and run things while a transitional government is given time to get ready to run the country. The US never wanted to do that because they feared that it would be seen as colonization and draw in combatants from all over the Middle East and South Asia, essentially a repeat of the Soviet war in Afghanistan.
So, the plan was to just hold off the Taliban and keep some areas free of Taliban control until such time as Al Qeada was not longer a threat. Al Qeada morphed into ISIS. ISIS was routed in Syria and Iraq primarily by Iraqi and Kurdish forces with support from US and Russia. The Taliban have no interest in international terrorism. They just want their country back from the western invaders. Most people in Afghanistan hate the Taliban but also hate the corrupt US backed government and having US drone strikes in the middle of the night. So, the Taliban is able to steam roll across the country because no one is interesting in dying for the US backed corrupt government.
It was a repeat of the Soviet misadventure in Afghanistan.
former U.S.M.C. rifleman wrote:
Precious Roy wrote:
It was all just a political show to convince people in the US that we were doing something to stop Al Qaeda. Very early on in the conflict, all of the Al Qaeda leadership slipped across the border and set up shop in Pakistan. The US could not go into Pakistan for fear that doing so would destabilize the government and put nukes into the hands of a militant Islamist government. So, the US just put on a show in Afghanistan purely for domestic political consumption.
The US could have easily routed the Taliban at just about any point in the conflict. But doing so would have required the US to commit very large numbers of US forces, mostly to be able to hold territory and root out militants who try to blend back into the population. That requires the US to effectively take control over the country and run things while a transitional government is given time to get ready to run the country. The US never wanted to do that because they feared that it would be seen as colonization and draw in combatants from all over the Middle East and South Asia, essentially a repeat of the Soviet war in Afghanistan.
So, the plan was to just hold off the Taliban and keep some areas free of Taliban control until such time as Al Qeada was not longer a threat. Al Qeada morphed into ISIS. ISIS was routed in Syria and Iraq primarily by Iraqi and Kurdish forces with support from US and Russia. The Taliban have no interest in international terrorism. They just want their country back from the western invaders. Most people in Afghanistan hate the Taliban but also hate the corrupt US backed government and having US drone strikes in the middle of the night. So, the Taliban is able to steam roll across the country because no one is interesting in dying for the US backed corrupt government.
You are thinking at the O-6 or maybe O-7 level. There have always been concerns at the Joint Chief of Staff/Secretary of Defense/Secretary of State/President level.
China has a China-Afghanistan border. China never was going to tolerate a significant U.S. military presence in Afghanistan. Would U.S. be happy if China sent a 1/4 million troops to Cuba?
You were correct regarding a show for U.S. citizens.
Both are good posts.
Ostensibly, it's so that terrorists don't have afghanistan as a safe haven to plan their attacks.
tarckstar wrote:
The country wants to stay in the year 1600 with modern guns, I don't understand how or why we should care.
Remind me?
Western guilt and politics. If we wanted to "make the Taliban pay", we should have just went in an carpet bombed them and left. Otherwise, let them live in 1600. But we our politicians just can't do that because they want reelected and/or have a god complex that thinks we can fix the world.
The taliban are not good people. Afghanistan has the potential to be decently prosperous with its mining if it somewhat got its act together. Money combined with a bunch of bad people running the show will lead to bad things. No one else is really capable of stopping them. They will eventually become a problem again, and will be a bigger problem than they could be right now. But I guess with Biden we want them to just do whatever they want to do until they start invading other countries and blowing other people up. I'll wager in less than five years Afghanistan's problems will start bleeding into Pakistan even more and will greatly take a turn for the worse, more than it already is, and India will start having huge problems. The situation from Iraq all the way to the Pakistan/India border will be worse than now.
WWRD wrote:
Western guilt and politics. If we wanted to "make the Taliban pay", we should have just gone in an carpet bombed them and left. Otherwise, let them live in 1600.
FTFY
Grammarian FTW wrote:
WWRD wrote:
Western guilt and politics. If we wanted to "make the Taliban pay", we should have just gone in an carpet bombed them and left. Otherwise, let them live in 1600.
FTFY
Thanks grammarian, grammar is not my strong suit. For my edification, why gone instead of went here? "went" is based on time "gone" action?
Because they grow the best opium poppies?
US presence in afghanistan exists to protect opium/poppy reserves (look into it if you don't believe me). United States intelligence agencies want to have control over the global drug trade (they established many Mexican cartels). It was never about democracy or women's rights - the war was all Theater....
Has the US ever left any country in a better state than it was before they invaded? They wreck everywhere they go,stay at home yanks.
Asking why we invaded Afghanistan just after watching the disastrous Russian experience doing the same thing is much like asking why we invaded Vietnam after watching the disastrous French experience doing the same thing, isn't it?
WWRD wrote:
...
Thanks grammarian, grammar is not my strong suit. For my edification, why gone instead of went here? "went" is based on time "gone" action?
I thought " should just have went" sounded okay to me, but I suppose the problem might be that "we have went" doesn't sound as good as "we have gone".
potato_salad wrote:
Ostensibly, it's so that terrorists don't have afghanistan as a safe haven to plan their attacks.
So now they’ll have to plan at home in Saudi Arabia and Israel?
White-collar welfare to all the US contractors and consultants that churn through the enormous military budget and never have to demonstrate any progress what so ever. It’s an open joke in this industry. The govt even pays overhead - so we don’t even need to be lean or efficient and we can max out all of our benefits annually just to push the overhead rate higher. Everyone gets a piece of the pie - so no one complains.
Cold war guilt. We created and fed that beast till it grew too big.