Biden will withdraw all U.S. forces from Afghanistan by Sept. 11, 2021

Don't think the US won't have local spies watching out for another ISIS/Taliban partnership. I don't see the same hate for US troops as there was for Saddam. The US saved their bacon twice now at the cost of US service personnel. Iraq was quick to recall the US back soon after we left when ISIS was on the rise. They don't want to burn bridges with the US.

 

Not all Iraqis think we "saved their bacon" by invading and occupying their country. Many will always see us as the enemy, and they called us back only because we were willing to do their dirty work for them.

We might have spies in Afghanistan, but if Taliban takes over the government, then what are we going to do other than go to war again. With minimal presence, like we have now, we could help the Afghans retain power and keep Taliban in the caves where they belong.

 

There will always be a few dissenters. What is "many?" Are they a majority in the Iraq Parliament who would eventually decide who will be prosecuted? And as I said before Iraq needs our partnership. If an ISIS/Taliban partnership does arise once again and posing a serious threat the US/NATO will return. Because the whole world will be watching Afghanistan they will not be able to surprise us with another 9/11. Time to put more focus elsewhere in the world where the threat is far more serious like China and Russia.

 

I'm afraid its more than few, with favorability rating being only 30% and that was before Trump threatened Iraq with sanctions.

Its time we stop pretending arabs like us. They don't like us, not even the Saudis. They work with us only as long as they think we are useful to them. Something could be worked out with Iraq as long as we can convince them that we are still useful. Perhaps we can create a problem and tell them we are the only solution.

Returning after Taliban has taken over, means we have to invade and fight our way in.

 

The US or any other countries have very few friends in the world. They are allies, countries who have a mutual interest. All countries threaten each other with sanctions. It's a better way to deal with problems than going to war. Russia just kicked out 10 US diplomats. Does that mean we should go to war with Russia? The US doesn't need to convince Iraq we are still useful, it's the other way around.

 

No. We went there because being in control of Iraq (or at least have major influence) was in our national interest, and it still is. It was never about WMDs.

 

Yeah I know it was more about stealing their oil. How did that turn out?

 

Not the oil so much as petro dollar and having our foot in middle of the arab land.

 

You know, I just figured it out. I assumed you were just Bidening your way into thinking I had been talking about debt, but I went back at our posts and saw that I had posted this:

And you replied:

For some reason, when I said, "I think the war(s) broke us as a country," you must have thought I meant broke=financially, instead of broke=sense of purpose/spiritually/ect...

So in a way you did Sleepy Joe a bit in failing to understand what I wrote, but at least I now get why you took it that way.

 

have you seen our debt, yes, the Bush wars broke us financially - if you meant other things, well, can't help that, can't read minds

 

Yep.
It's a planned withdrawal. What a novel idea.

 

Can we trade her for the Jewish laser lady?

 

The day we stopped saying Al Qaeda and started saying Taliban we were screwed.

 

If not for the Taliban El Qaeda would not have had a training camp in Afghanistan. Now both are irrelevant. We are no longer accomplishing anything of real value there. The tribes will just continue to grow their poppy fields while the US turns a blind eye because there are no other crops that bring in so much money.

 

Time to get out of the ME.

 

OK, again that has nothing to do with the topic, but like Blutarsky I guess you're on a roll.

 

We got both!

 

We keep going in and then pulling out, only to go back in again. That's very expensive.

 

you make no sense

 

Our government convinces us it's due to a national threat and each time it turns out not to be. Afghanistan was but only to the extent we dismantled the Taliban and destroyed Al Qaeda's training camps. After that the US should have pulled out. Libya was no threat. Syria is no threat. We created the threat in Iraq. Iran is only a threat to the international trade through the Suez Canal. I'm sure there are several more ME countries I could name that are no threat to the US.