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| Afghanistan |
| New Paper Highlights Why Trump Should Bring U.S. Troops Home From Afghanistan |
| 2019-08-19 |
| [Federalist] In a startling new paper from the Center for Strategic and International Studies, retired colonel Mark Cancian writes about the Afghanistan War. The United States and the Taliban stand on the brink of a framework that would lead to a peace process charting the path for the American troops to come home. Cancian asks a simple question. The war in Afghanistan was already won by the end of March 2001. The Taliban was decimated, al-Qaeda scuttled, and a government manned by various warlords in place. Why did the United States not leave immediately? Cancian’s answer wouldn’t surprise anyone who opposed nation-building even in the early days of 2003. The fault was a lack of study of history‐not just modern history, but any history. He writes that U.S. foreign policy mavens and defense planners thought there was a difference between Soviets’ war in Afghanistan and the Western war in Afghanistan. The common understanding was that the Soviets were occupiers, and the Anglo-Americans were liberators; the Soviets tried to preach communism, while liberal democracy is a natural universal value waiting for everyone to adopt; and the Russians were violent, while the Westerners made sure that civilians were protected even during the war. These are of course true, and the Russians were far more brutal than the Americans ever were. But Cancian points out that none of that matters to the average Afghan. In its Afghanistan War Americans learned, according to the report, what the Soviets learned the hard way. |
| Posted by:Besoeker |
| #11 The fault was a lack of study of history‐not just modern history, but any history. Now imagine what our future elites, who only know woke history, will do. |
| Posted by: charger 2019-08-19 19:56 |
| #10 This country (our country) needs to learn the meaning if punitive campaign. And then apply it, whenever and wherever needed. |
| Posted by: Lex 2019-08-19 18:30 |
| #9 But ruprecht makes an excellent point at #3. |
| Posted by: Abu Uluque 2019-08-19 11:23 |
| #8 Why did the United States not leave immediately? My guess would be the opium. |
| Posted by: Abu Uluque 2019-08-19 11:21 |
| #7 2001-2002 Punitive Campaign more or less accomplished things. Post WW2 it seemed that a lot of little despots got this charming idea: "If we can't build nukes we can invest in terrorists as 'plausibly deniable' WMDs." (With a sly smirk: "It'd be a shame if someone made a mess in your capitol, eh?") The inevitable necessary response is to publicly chastise some 'Bad Actor' to convince the other jackasses that 'Actions have Consequences'. So far so good, then the Globalists (eager to spend Other People's Money™) and the Opposition Parties decided we had to stay and "fix Afghanistan". *Argh* (1) The whole point of a Punitive Raid is to cause such pain that Bad Actors will not repeat their behavior and (2) Can Afghanistan be "Fixed" (assuming you can even get a consensus on what "fixed" even means... *Spit*) ?? |
| Posted by: magpie 2019-08-19 11:04 |
| #6 Bush declared victory and left (for the most part) at the first opportunity, moving the war to Iraq, where we had a better chance of achieving something, politically and logistically. But noooo, Iraq was the bad war and Afghanistan the good one, so we had to go back and get tangled in that mess. |
| Posted by: Glenmore 2019-08-19 08:30 |
| #5 "The war in Afghanistan was already won by the end of March 2001." I think he meant March 2002. We could have armed the Northern Alliance and let them loose. The inevitable massacres would have been blamed on us (of course we were blamed anyway). The other thing to remember was that OBL wasn't captured and explaining our leaving Afghanistan without killing him would have been difficult. |
| Posted by: lord garth 2019-08-19 08:25 |
| #4 New Paper ? Did anyone actually think it would be possible to turn an ancient, Islamic, boy-buggering, opium den of bandits into Switzerland ? |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2019-08-19 08:09 |
| #3 Oddly I feel better having tried. Now I can believe with 100% confidence that they should be left to rot, isolated and ignored by civilization until they are ready to join on their own. |
| Posted by: ruprecht 2019-08-19 08:04 |
| #2 I'll say this in favor of Boosh. If Kerry had been elected, we'd be in up to our nose instead of just once up to our ass now down to our knees. |
| Posted by: M. Murcek 2019-08-19 07:28 |
| #1 All Afghanistan ever needed was the instant ash tray fly over. Iraq was Boosh's folly. Libya was Bath House and Swillary's folly. If we never went we would not be needing a strategery for leaving. Yes, I'm using the dreaded Herb "We..." |
| Posted by: M. Murcek 2019-08-19 07:25 |