What the anti-war people don't realize is that if your not fighting Al Qaeda in Iraq you will have to fight them in Afganistan. Both Iraq and Afganistan are jihadist magnets. The moment we pull out of Afganistan will be the day they Jihadists attack New York again. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080109/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_afghanistan
This is like back to the future or something. The British tried to control this area, they failed. The Soviets tried to control this area, they bankrupted themselves. Now Americans are back for a second time (though we really didn't leave completely the first time). 3rd times the charm?
Highly doubtful. The U.S revolution was won because we knew the area better than the British and we had more will power and reason to fight than the British. That's also the same reason Afghanistan will prevail against the United States. Sad that we can't learn from history. The above logic is being proven in Iraq right now. Silly necons.
Exactly. If 1980s USSR can't do it, why bother? OP makes it sound like they are on their way here the minute we pack our bags, which is a far stretch from reality.
It looks like some of the guys around here will be shipping out soon. Hopefully, they can post from Afghanistan
The last time that the Taliban and Afganistan controlled Afganistan, they highjacked four jets and rammed them into the Pentagon and World Trade Towers.
I believe that had more to do with Saudi Arabia. You know, where the majority of the hijackers came from, where Bin Laden is from, where most of us know our oil money goes to extremists, and where the anti-american sentiment below the oligarchy is pretty strong. You can't win a fight with Bob by punching Jim in the face. Any meaningful action in Afghanistan has to be geared around capturing Bin Laden. This nation building crap, particularly with the Afghans is a war of attrition, one we can't fight with conventional weapons or it will be our Soviet style Waterloo.
I think they will be staying for some time. I know a major in the army who has orders to be there for the next 15 months. That is just to help get his men situated.
The Taliban controlled Afganistan and Al Qaeda attacked the US. We are at war. Bin Laden is still out there. The US does have an ally in the Northern Alliance so that's a plus.
Americans need to cut consumption of fossils fuels but I don't see too many American buying small 50mpg cars.
And Popeye ate his spinach. This kind of broad definition of the enemy is exactly why this war will never be won. The US only has an ally in the Northern Alliance because the Iranians negotiated for them. Without the NA and Iran, Afghanistan would never have accepted Karzai. I see, so you aren't going to refute that Saudi Arabia is the problem, but you see any chance of us defeating them held back by our passion for large automobiles. I expect more from you on my quote than a statement about energy independence Bogart.
It's not the energy dependence but the cash that we are supplying to the Saudis. Yemen is actually just as big of a problem.
Right, so we have Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, Iraq and Iran. Any other ones we should add to our list? Ain't nobody gunna like this, but this is my take. We can recruit and train a soldier, and deploy him in what, 8, 10, 14 months? Why is it that the Iraqis have been at it for 3 years and they can't get their guys field ready? Second, am I the only person concerned that we're basically redeploying to Afghanistan? That either means that (1) we didn't finish the job the first time, or (2) the Afghans are a lot tougher than given credit for. Neither is good news. It's been 5 years since we went into Afghanistan. If we can't knock off places like this, how the hell are we supposed to defend ourselves against a real attack? And lastly, with regards to Afghanis selling poppies for airfare to come over and attack us, that's not terrifying at all. What's terrifying is that our borders are open, and we put more energy into taking away people's shampoo and cologne bottles than we do screening who comes into this country. Our best border guards are deployed to Iraq, and we could have terrorists all over the place, with biological or nuclear weapons. And yet the madness of the "fight'em over there" mentality persists.
It takes between 4-6 months to train a private. In order to build an army you need officers, non commisioned officers, combat engineers, logistics, command staff, military acadamies etc In WW2 it took a couple of years to build a division. Once built replacements can be fed in.
So 50 some odd years later, it takes twice as long? Bogart, I'm feisty tonight! Don't trifle with me!