A useless endless war showing no positive results except huge quantities of bombs dropped this is good for American arms manufacturers serving the so called Defense Department
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Sounds like Vietnam without the anti war protests.
Might be time to leave!
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Nineteen hijackers, most from Saudi Arabia, bring the US to its knees using boxcutters. In revenge the US has killed millions directly or indirectly, wrecked Ahghanistan and Iraq, the Cradle of Civilization, and added some 6 trillion to its debt.
As to the futility and stupidity of the Forever War in Afghanistan...
During a 2017 meeting about how to best prosecute the Afghan war, Trump said in four star marine General Kelly's presence that the young American soldiers who had died in Afghanistan had died for a worthless cause. Trump said, “We got our boys who are over there being blown up every day for what? For nothing. Guys are dying for nothing.”
The US mindless obsession with bombing countries to make them "better", or to force them into submitting to US National Interests... is metastisizing terrorists all over the world, making the US less safe and the world more unstable.
Only idiots believe the US is fighting them there so we don't have to fight them here.
As for dealing with conflict, real courage is reaching out your hand when someone is pointing a gun at you... and asking "What's the problem?"
But real courage is not an American strength.
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What if U.S. strategy is merely to use Afghanistan as a pretext to give taxpayer dollars to the defense industry?
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It's important to keep in mind that Afghanistan never attacked the U.S. The excuse for invading was to capture one man, Osama bin Laden, who as it turned out was hiding in Pakistan. How many innocents did we kill and maim in order to "get" him? And even after he was killed, we continue to destroy that country.
We keep increasing the military budget while cutting funds for any social projects that would strengthen our country, including public health agencies that might protect us from the corona virus. And of course we gave enormous tax breaks to the rich, are trying to sell off all public lands for mining and logging, and are gutting laws that stop corporations from poisoning the environment. The Preamble to the Constitution says that one of our purposes is to "promote the general welfare." Perhaps we should scrap that and say it is to destroy as much of the world as we can and commit national suicide in the process.
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The headline says it all.
What is needed is US Strategy on Pakistan. Correct that and Afghanistan will be fine.
During the Cold War, we the USA used Pakistan to defeat the Soviet Union in Afghanistan. This time around, you will find China used Pakistan to defeat us.
Back when, when the China FM warned GWBush team to keep hands off Pakistan (due their duplicity), that exact day we should have done the right thing. We lost this war that day.
Now, today, after Soleimani, we are facing Iran in the mix. Something bold is required. There is still a small window to do it.
Do nothing, we loose Asia and put our allies (Saudia, UAE, Oman) at risk.
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@ParagAdalja
Let Saudi Arabia, UAE and Oman learn how to get along... of course, they had better not follow the US example.
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In Afghanistan one is reminded of Ho Chi Minhs prediction of how the US in the Vietnam war would play out. “You may kill us at 10:1, but in the end it is you who will tire and go home”. We do not and seemingly cannot understand that part of the world. Our troops have done everything the government could have possibly asked. It will never be enough. The Afghans have been fighting each other and invaders for centuries. That isn’t going to change, no matter what we do. Minus the weapons it’s still the 8th century and fundamentalist Islam “guides” daily life. Time to go home.
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The Taliban are the Afghanis.Remember,please,after 9/11 we invaded Afghanistan and got rid of Bin Ladin.We decided to stay and do a little regime change.The current regime in Afghanistan is basically a puppet government answering to the USA.This is a civil war.We should let them fight it out themselves.
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Mr. Trump claimed he could get a better nuclear deal with Iran and pull US troops out of Afghanistan.. it's a good thing the people of Afghanistan won't be voting in November's election.
1
I'm tired of all this winning..how about you?
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Another example of things that only started in 2016, like climate change, racism, deficits and the other Middle East wars? We’ve been lied to and deceived about Afghanistan since 2001. I know, like everything else wrong with the world, it’s all trumps fault.
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"..overall enemy-initiated attacks and effective enemy-initiated attacks during the fourth quarter of 2019 exceeded same-period levels in every year since recording began in 2010,” the report said.
The president withdrew the US from the nuclear deal and has been imposing increasingly stringent sanctions on the Iranian economy. Coincidence?
1