Losing Afghanistan
- Thread starter Rockslinger
- Start date
Absolutely.
And now the pipelines will go Iran-India and maybe into China.
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/NC16Df01.html
Groggy, pray tell why then has Pakistan (Particularly the Military) been so opposed to an Afghan pipeline to India?
LOL you guys slay me with your deep insights, clearly based on personal experience. Glad to see the crack team of Terb international affairs commentary analysts are on the job.
Afghanistan is such a lovely prize and we lost it. I'll be crying in my beer tonight.
Wonder if this will give that poor War Criminal Darth Cheney a fatal heart attack....:Eek:
Afghanistan is where armies go to die. If anyone of our fearless leaders would take a moment to understand History this all could have been avoided. The West blew it in Afghanistan by not reaching out after the pull out of the Russians. Had we reached out at the time we would have been welcomed. We didn't. It's almost as if NATO preferred to wait and go to War instead of finding a peaceful political solution when it was presented.
BS
BS
what was/ is the definition of a WIN?
i find the Lindsey Graham types to be very dangerous ... continuing to push for this war without a clear definition of what it means to win, which in my view means what the f do the Afghanis want???? There was time , when women were being liberated, votes were being held, that it seemed as if the Afghani people were interested in the US vision of the future.. but now? i would imagine all those people (women) who risked their lives to vote are quite scared now and feeling let down. As we know the Taliban and Al Qaeda take a long view an shave long institutional memory an they are not forgiving to betrayals.
i find the Lindsey Graham types to be very dangerous ... continuing to push for this war without a clear definition of what it means to win, which in my view means what the f do the Afghanis want???? There was time , when women were being liberated, votes were being held, that it seemed as if the Afghani people were interested in the US vision of the future.. but now? i would imagine all those people (women) who risked their lives to vote are quite scared now and feeling let down. As we know the Taliban and Al Qaeda take a long view an shave long institutional memory an they are not forgiving to betrayals.
Good question. If we "win" what have we won? If we "lose" what have we lost? To be perfectly blunt, I don't care about winning the hearts and minds of Afghans.
I thought the goal was to prevent Afghanistan from being used as a base to stage attacks on the United States and other countries. Has that been achieved in a permanent way? What will happen when the Taliban retake the country?
The answer to that question will determine whether any claim of victory can be made.
If the Taliban decide they've had enough of outsiders and refuse to allow their country to be used to attack the United States then it's a win. If they decide to take a little revenge against the United States for the last few years of war, and they invite Al Qaeda back in to resume training for further attacks on New York--well then it's a loss.
I think in that sense it will fall into the "win" category--it SHOULD still be possible to negotiate a handover to the Taliban that precludes the use of the country for terrorist attacks.
That's too bad because once upon a time there was another "win" outcome, where Afghanistan emerged from the chaos as not a completely fucked country. But that opportunity now seems lost in the bumbling incompetence of the military, which wrongly thought winning meant killing as many bad guys as possible.
The Taliban have said numerous times that they are only interested in subjugating their own people. The only reason they are attacking Americans is because the Americans are building schools, roads and bridges on Afghan soil. If we leave, then the Taliban will leave us alone.
They said similar things prior to the invasion. On the other hand, they were lying back then. Maybe this time they aren't lying.
A better exit strategy would be to let Pakistan's security service take over Afghanistan. Then they wouldn't feel the need to prop up the Taliban anymore. Not sure how that can be done in a delicate way... the Pakistanis can't be trusted not to help the Taliban, but they probably CAN be trusted to replace the Taliban.
The war will end but the drone attacks will continue for years.Same with special ops.Afghanistan has never been conquered but up until this war they never had to contend with U.S Drones.
