The Taliban have WON in Afghanistan... (really?)

Killed a bunch of people in their own land, and defoliated a significant part of that land.

 

The cold war was in full gear and there was a real threat of communist expansion. Not that this justified our efforts there - but the situation was different.

Afghanistan is just a waste. While there was perhaps justification for targeting Al Qaeda right after 911 - this had nothing to do with the Taliban.

10 years after 911 and all of a sudden we are arming and supporting Al Qaeda and I quote "fighting along side them" in Syria - yet we still fight for another 8 years in Afghanistan on the basis of the claim "we are fighting Al Qaeda".

Sorry but, my brain can only handle so much hypocrisy, lying and Orwellian propaganda speak.

 

I do agree it's all screwed up, just like Vietnam.

 

I think the reasons it is "all screwed up" are different in many ways. Then there is the uncomfortable question of why things are so screwed up ? What is also different is that the Media no longer asks these pertinent questions - perhaps due to the fallout from Vietnam when people did question such things.

Sure there was stuff that was covered up during Vietnam - propaganda and so on. Now the situation is far worse and the control over the media far greater - and the impact of these useless wars on the nation far greater. In large part this was exactly what Eisenhower was warning about in his Farewell address - with respect to the military industrial complex.

Policy is now driven by what will pad the pockets of the international financiers that own the MIC, the Banks, and the healthcare and insurance Oligopolies .. That and pyramid building within the bureaucratic Establishment. We are sold the narrative that this policy is in the interests of US citizens. At what point does a person sit back and go "hey - wait a minute" - perhaps the interests that are driving policy are not in our best interest.

It is this idea that is generally not questioned - sure folks will criticize the Gov't but at the end of the day they have the underlying belief that the powers at be generally have our "bests interests" in mind - even if they are doing nasty things and keeping secrets.

 

I try to keep things simple, we went into Afghanistan with a limited and unclear objective. We got everybody we are going to get with responsibility towards 9-11.
We are fighting the Taliban it seems simply because they attack us.

Now if there are good reasons for us to fight the Taliban then we should be talking about those reasons and developing a strategy to win. This permanent tit for tat is a bad idea and we should leave.
Develop a strategy to win or get out.

 

I think it's a mistake to attribute American, or any other nation's, foreign policy directly to the immediate material interests of this or that economic interest group. It's not that these interests play no role, but that the government of any country is supposed to look out for the interests of the system as a whole. (I do not say, its citizens.)

The US did not intervene against the Taliban when they were the government of Afghanistan ... in fact, by supporting Islamists in Afghanistan against the Russians and their Afghan clients, the US could be said to have helped create the Taliban.

Under Bush II, 'nation building' was in vogue. We would 'drain the swamp' which bred the Islamist pestilence. Whether or not this could have worked, it didn't. But there is such a thing as inertia and face-saving. It seems to me that the US would love to have some sort of face-saving deal, as we did with the North Vietnamese, that would allow us to withdraw, with a 'decent interval' (as it was called with respect to Vietnam) before the enemy took over and took revenge on our allies.

It's impossible to predict what Mr Trump will do from one moment to the next, but I wouldn't be surprised if there weren't such a deal in Afghanistan. Probably the Taliban are too principled to agree to some phoney temporary 'coalition' -- religion tends to do that to people. But it would be the smart thing for them to do.

 

Of course the Taliban attack us - we are in their country attacking them and have been doing so for 2 decades. This is a ridiculous justification IMO. That is like justifying Iraq on the basis of "we went in there and bombed them - and they attacked us".

Strategy to win ? win what ? The strategy in Afghanistan is to destabilize the country so competing pipeline/ energy corridor interests can not build new lines into the "new silk road" - energy hungry market of China and India.

So in that respect we are winning by keeping the nation destabilized.

 

"The Taliban have WON in Afghanistan... (really?)"

Let's be honest here. They're not losing for sure.


"the total of US military personnel who have died in that useless war to 2429.
... What did they die for?"

B-u-u-u-u-u-u-t did they die to protect our freedoms? That's what they told me anyway. "Get some!"

 

That's right. But you forgot to mention that the U.S. did not partake in a war as much as it created a war where one did not exist.

True. Very true.

 

Why do Americans never say "a threat of Capitalist expansion?" And why call Communism a "threat"? Communism didn't "take" or "spread" to Vietnam. Nor to post WW II Europe. It was chosen. In each and every example (that I can think of at the moment anyway) Communist countries were liberated by Communism and so the Communist elements already in place were naturally selected to rebuild the country. In the case of Vietnam, its liberation was achieved by indigenous Communists, rather than coming from abroad.

 

What is taking so long?
And why does the world have to think in binary terms?

 

So why can't we rid the country of the Taliban? 18 yrs and counting. What are we waiting for?

 

Someone forget to tell you it was the U.S. that created the Taliban.

 

some of the rich in this country seem to be raping children or preachers - all rape is bad, but can't blame the entire group, not all the rich rape, not all muslims rape, not all Christians rape

those that do, need to be brought to justice

 

As is happening now with Epstein.

 

and I want anyone that was in on it with him to go down too

 

This is true - but, they were the "bad guys" and we were the "good guys". We were spreading democracy and freedom around the world ! - or so the platitude went - and back then there was perhaps some truth to the platitude.

That was a long time ago and there has been no Truth to the platitude in a long long time. We have now been reduced to supporting arming and supporting the 911 terrorist group who attacked us in their effort - not to spread freedom and democracy - but in an effort to spread Sharia Theocratic totalitarianism in Syria. The people of Syria fight against these Islamist extremists to keep their freedoms under the Secular Assad regime. We fight against these people .. fighting for the forces of evil that want to take away these freedoms.

The ideology of the conflict actually has nothing to do with why we supported this extremist nut jobs - who have been raping, and slaughtering Christians and other marginalized religious groups - They don't care .. they have the economic interests of the international financiers that run this nation and dictate foreign policy to protect. Our military has been turned into puppets for the interests of these big money interests.

 

Not all of them do, but when it is sanctioned in their religion, a larger percentage will do it.

 

I hear you. Stalin and co. didn't do much in putting a happy face on Communism in Europe. There were some good guys like Alexander Dubcek and a few others but Stalinism screwed them over but good. It would be difficult to fault Ho Chi Minh and Fidel Castro (and later) Gorbatjov. The Communist movements in Vietnam and Cuba plus the reforms planned in Russia are noteworthy. The "good guys" and the "bad guys" are pretty clear to see to the naked eye and with the exception of the American public, most people of the world have known all along who's who.

 

In fact, the Soviets were much worse than GIs during the Second World War. When they invaded Germany in 1945, Soviet soldiers - bent on revenge for German atrocities - raped between one and
two million German women - of whom 80,000 later commited suicide. Netflix recently had a documentary about this. I believe it was called 'Savage Peace.'

 

Oh, Oh... Clinton?

 

US got nothing to do in that sh**7hole.
Get the man back home, leave them to kill each other as much as they like.

 

or Trump, anyone, party doesn't mater to me, if either is guilty, one rapes a child, they should be locked up

 

I suppose, like if the rich get away with it all the time, more rich people will do it

tank goodness for the #metoo movement then - cause the bible and the koran endorse it - the church covered for preachers and more preachers did it

 

Don't forget to shoot the porn industry first or simultaneously!