Reason: It Looks Like Trump Is About to Pull the U.S. Out of Afghanistan, Too

crimsonaudio

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The Wall Street Journal reports that more than 7,000 U.S. troops will start to be pulled out of Aghanistan "in the coming weeks."

President Donald Trump is reportedly considering pulling U.S. troops out of Afghanistan, hard on the heels of yesterday's announced draw-down in Syria. Washington was already in a tizzy about the abrupt manner of the Syria announcement, and seems to be greeting these early reports of Afghanistan in the same way. But ending these two drawn-out, expensive wars is the right thing to do. There's only so much good money, men, and materiel you can throw after bad.
It Looks Like Trump Is About to Pull the U.S. Out of Afghanistan, Too

This is great news, imo. "Bring the boys back home."
 

Tidewater

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I thought the administration had announced that they had directed the U.S. ambassador to contact the Taliban about negotiations. I can tell you one thing, if the U.S. hints at a pullout, NATO countries with troops in Afghanistan will race the U.S. to the door.
The explicit premise of the film Charlie Wilson's War was that we had to stay engaged to help Afghanistan modernize and stabilize its country once the Soviets pulled out. Well, we have been living that "dream" for nigh on two decades. You can't modernize that country. They don't want to be modern.
When the last U.S. soldier leaves, I wish he'd post a sign telling the Taliban "It's all yours, suckers. Have a nice time fighting other Afghans. Don't let us catch you hosting international terrorists or we'll come back and bomb you back to the stone age, and next time, we won't stay and fix anything. We'll just kick you in the scrotum and watch you squirm."
 

Displaced Bama Fan

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Too many lives, no clear objective, too tribal for thousands of years...not worth it other than the lithium for our batteries to power our phones and computers.
 

twofbyc

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Again, our reason for being there ended long ago IMO.
As for Syria, we should never have gone there in the first place.


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twofbyc

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Right after Trump pulls out is when he pays the recipient to not tell anyone, right?
Well, he’ll deny he pulled out, blame it on the media then pony up before he meets with evangelicals...no need to rub their noses in it. [emoji6]


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twofbyc

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I was there is 2001 and I agree.
Good money after bad at this point.
The initial goal in going there has been achieved - under Obama’s presidency, no less. It didn’t happen in Afghanistan thanks to shrub, but it’s done and we should burn all the poppy fields on our way out.


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Tidewater

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The initial goal in going there has been achieved - under Obama’s presidency, no less. It didn’t happen in Afghanistan thanks to shrub, but it’s done and we should burn all the poppy fields on our way out.
I think the initial objective (eject the Taliban from power because they refused to handover bin Laden) was accomplished by December 2001, but killing bin Laden was nice as well. Sometimes I wish we had not dropped his sorry carcass into the ocean but had buried him face down with a severed pig's phallus shoved up his rectum, but that site would have become a shrine for moslems, so dropping his sorry carcass into the ocean is a good 2nd best solution.

On a related note, I liked Obama's decision to have SEALs shoot Somali pirates in the head on Easter Sunday.
 

92tide

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I think the initial objective (eject the Taliban from power because they refused to handover bin Laden) was accomplished by December 2001, but killing bin Laden was nice as well. Sometimes I wish we had not dropped his sorry carcass into the ocean but had buried him face down with a severed pig's phallus shoved up his rectum, but that site would have become a shrine for moslems, so dropping his sorry carcass into the ocean is a good 2nd best solution.

On a related note, I liked Obama's decision to have SEALs shoot Somali pirates in the head on Easter Sunday.
gives a new meaning to sunrise service.
 

twofbyc

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I think the initial objective (eject the Taliban from power because they refused to handover bin Laden) was accomplished by December 2001, but killing bin Laden was nice as well. Sometimes I wish we had not dropped his sorry carcass into the ocean but had buried him face down with a severed pig's phallus shoved up his rectum, but that site would have become a shrine for moslems, so dropping his sorry carcass into the ocean is a good 2nd best solution.

On a related note, I liked Obama's decision to have SEALs shoot Somali pirates in the head on Easter Sunday.
Well I’m wrong - I thought the reason was to get Bin Laden.



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GrayTide

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For those of us who were around for Vietnam, the situation in Afghanistan has been eerily similar. No clear understanding of the mission, and no exit strategy for a war that eventually lost support of the American public. The greatest loss has been the deaths of US servicemen and women and the astronomical cost in actual dollars that could have helped so many at home and abroad. Not sure if we have learned anything from all of this, we sure as hell did not learn anything from our experience in Southeast Asia.
 

twofbyc

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For those of us who were around for Vietnam, the situation in Afghanistan has been eerily similar. No clear understanding of the mission, and no exit strategy for a war that eventually lost support of the American public. The greatest loss has been the deaths of US servicemen and women and the astronomical cost in actual dollars that could have helped so many at home and abroad. Not sure if we have learned anything from all of this, we sure as hell did not learn anything from our experience in Southeast Asia.
Getting Bin Laden and destroying the Taliban were more valid reasons than we ever had for Vietnam; but there was abject failure by Bush to end it quickly, because as Tidewater pointed out the Taliban were routed fairly quickly. Bin Laden could have been captured/ killed in Afghanistan early on as well, but Bush was (still is) an idiot.
But you are right inasmuch as there was no exit strategy (seems the good ol USA never has one), thus we fiddled around and allowed the resurgence of the Taliban and we’ve been there forever.
We had a goal; what is it about our government that prevents our outstanding military from achieving that goal quickly and efficiently, like they can, then coming home?
That’s a rhetorical question; I know the answer resides (now and back then as well) in the White House.


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GrayTide

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Well, the Russians were bogged down in Afghanistan from 1979-1992 and finally just pulled out, too bad we didn't learn from their experience. If I had to venture a guess as to why we did not leave Vietnam or Afghanistan when it was obvious we were not going to attain a clear cut win, it would be for political reasons driven by money and greed from lobbyists and Congress.
 

Tidewater

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But you are right inasmuch as there was no exit strategy (seems the good ol USA never has one), thus we fiddled around and allowed the resurgence of the Taliban and we’ve been there forever.
We had a goal; what is it about our government that prevents our outstanding military from achieving that goal quickly and efficiently, like they can, then coming home?
Defeating an Islamic extremist group and ejecting their government from power is easy.
Building stable polity thereafter is more difficult and, frankly beyond DoD's power. If the defeated country wants to get their crap together and has a population educated enough to be modern (e.g. Germany and Japan in 1945), then they have a chance. If they are a bunch of medieval misanthropes, bent on remaining in the middle ages, there is no such hope.
What guided the U.S. government into this quixotic goal was the thinking behind Charlie Wilson's War, one of the more pernicious films out there, the arrogant idea that we can force an unwilling people to become modern. No amount of blood and treasure can modernize Afghanistan, because the Afghans do not wish to be modern. They want to be archaic and are willing to die fighting to keep Afghanistan that way.
If they allow terrorists attacking the U.S. to base their ops from Afghanistan territory again, I would rather bomb them from 35,000 feet and then laugh at their misery.
 
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92tide

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Well, the Russians were bogged down in Afghanistan from 1979-1992 and finally just pulled out, too bad we didn't learn from their experience. If I had to venture a guess as to why we did not leave Vietnam or Afghanistan when it was obvious we were not going to attain a clear cut win, it would be for political reasons driven by money and greed from lobbyists and Congress.
john rambo learned from their experience
 

crimsonaudio

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Not sure if we have learned anything from all of this, we sure as hell did not learn anything from our experience in Southeast Asia.
We've learned that if given a reason, Americans will allow the government to funnel ridiculous sums of money to all sorts of things that don't benefit US citizens in any way.
 

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